Saudi intercepts missile from Yemen but truce holds

Source: missiledefenseadvocacy.org --- Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Reuters: saudiarabia intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen on Monday, but a saudi-led military coalition said it would maintain a shaky truce despite the “serious escalation” by the Houthi militia and its allies, state news agency SPA said. The Iran-allied Houthis and Yemen’s saudi-backed exile government are trying to reach a peace agreement in talks in Kuwait aimed at ending the year-long war and easing a humanitarian crisis in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country. The saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen a year ago mainly with air strikes in support of the Yemeni government. A tentative U.N-backed ceasefire has been in place since last month to give the peace talks in Kuwait a chance at progress. Both sides have regularly accused each other of violations. Yemen’s government wants the Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over weapons and withdraw from cities captured last year. saudi air defense forces destroyed the missile without it causing any damage, the coalition said, according to SPA. It gave no further details about the missile or the target. Similar incidents have occurred periodically over the past months. “The coalition announces that it will continue to maintain the cessation of hostilities,” it said, reiterating that it retained the right to respond as appropriate. Brigadier General Sharaf Luqman, a spokesman for Yemeni forces fighting alongside the Houthis, said ...