VIDEO: UAE intercepts, destroys Houthi missiles over Abu Dhabi

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The  state-run news agency WAM reported that the United Arab Emirates intercepted two ballistic missiles targeting Abu Dhabi early on Monday, the latest attack to target the Emirati capital.

The WAM said that missile fragments fell harmlessly over Abu Dhabi.

"The remnants of the intercepted ballistic missiles fell in separate areas around Abu Dhabi," the UAE Defence Ministry said, adding it was taking necessary protective measures against all attacks.

A spokesman for Yemen's Houthi rebel militia later said they had launched attacks targeting both the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, without elaborating.

The attack on Abu Dhabi, after another last week killed three people and wounded six, further escalates tensions across the Gulf.

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That war, pitting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels against a Saudi-led coalition, has become a regional conflict as negotiations continue over Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers. The collapse of the accord has sparked years of attacks across the region.

Houthi-run Al Masirah television said the group would announce within hours the details of a "wide military operation" against Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

This satellite image shows an Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. fuel depot in the Mussafah, Abu Dhabi. AP

Yemen's civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized Sanaa, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene to prop up the government the following year.

The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people directly or indirectly and left millions on the brink of famine, according to the UN which calls it the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe.