Missile fired by Iran-backed rebels in Yemen injures Saudi child

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Tuesday fired a rocket at Saudi Arabia’s southern Jizan province, leaving a five-year-old child wounded, Saudi authorities said.

The child was taken to a local hospital after the Katyusha rocket struck, civil defense officials said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The Iran-backed rebels have ramped up missile attacks against neighboring Saudi Arabia in recent months.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other allies intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to restore the internationally recognized government to power after the Houthis rebels ousted it from swathes of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

Saudi forces have previously said they have shot down Houthi missiles with Patriot surface-to-air missiles purchased from the United States.

The latest strike comes after Yemeni pro-government forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates paused their push into the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeida.

Saudi Arabia earlier this year tested a new siren system for Riyadh and the oil-rich Eastern Province, in a sign of the growing threat posed by the rebels’ arms.

Riyadh accuses its regional rival Tehran of supplying the Houthis with missiles, a charge Iran denies.

On June 24, Saudi air defenses intercepted two missiles over the capital Riyadh but no casualties were reported, state media said.

The attack came as Saudi women celebrated taking the wheel for the first time in decades after the kingdom overturned the world’s only ban on female motorists.