Tensions across Persian Gulf escalates as UAE intercepts 2 ballistic missiles over Abu Dhabi

In a big breaking news, the United Arab Emirates intercepted two ballistic missiles targeting Abu Dhabi early Monday. The state-run news agency reported about the latest attack to target the Emirati capital. A similar attack took place last week killing three people and wounding six others.

This comes amid escalating tensions across the Persian Gulf as Yemen’s years long civil war takes an ugly turn. Yemen, one of the Arab world’s poorest countries, has been devastated by a civil war. The conflict has its roots in the failure of a political process supposed to bring stability to Yemen following an uprising in 2011.

The war pitting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels against a Saudi-led coalition has become a regional conflict. “The Emirates is ready and ready to deal with any threats and that it takes all necessary measures to protect the state from all attacks,” state-run news agency quoted the UAE Defense Ministry as saying.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the attack came a week after Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed an attack on the Emirati capital that killed three people and wounded six others. A Saudi-led coalition that the UAE backs unleashed airstrikes targeting Yemen recently.

This attack left the Arab world’s poorest country off the internet and killed over 80 people at a detention centre. The Houthis had threaten to take revenge against the Emirates and Saudi Arabia over those attacks. On Sunday, the Saudi-led coalition said a Houthi-launched ballistic missile landed in an industrial area in Jizan, Saudi Arabia, slightly wounding a foreigner.

Saudi Arabia accuses regional rival Iran of providing military support to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, especially missiles and rockets, claims that Tehran denies. The Houthi rebels seized Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting the Saudi-led intervention supported by the US, France and Britain in March 2015.