Persian Gulf update 12/19/2017..Saudi Arabia intercepts Houthi missile fired from Yemen, "aiming at a royal palace in Riyadh"

ROYAL PALACE TARGETED BY YEMEN REBELS IN RIYADH

Saudi Rulers’ Meeting in Riyadh Palace Targeted by Yemen’s Ballistic Missile

The Yemeni army targeted the Saudi capital city of Riyadh with a Burkan 2H ballistic missile, Arab media reported on Tuesday.

The Arabic-language al-Masirah news channel reported that the sound of a powerful blast was heard in Saudi Arabia.

According to the report, the missile targeted the Riyadh Royal Palace.

Spokesman of Yemen’s Ansarullah popular forces said the missile was targeted at a meeting of senior Saudi officials in the capital.

Sputnik news agency quoted Ansarullah movement’s spokesman as declaring the launch of a ballistic missile targeting Riyadh.

But al-Arabiya TV claimed that Saudi Arabia has intercepted the ballistic missile fired by the Yemeni army and popular committees.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 15,300 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

According to several reports, the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has driven the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as Saudi Arabia’s deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.

The cholera outbreak in Yemen which began in April, has also claimed over 2,200 lives and has infected about one million people, as the nation has been suffering from what the World Health Organization (WHO) describes as the “largest epidemic in the world” amid a non-stop bombing campaign led by Saudi Arabia. Also Riyadh’s deadly campaign prevented the patients from traveling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.

According to reports, the cholera epidemic in Yemen, which is the subject of a Saudi Arabian war and total embargo, is the largest recorded in modern history.

Aid officials have also warned of the spread of diphtheria in war-torn Yemen, as WHO and officials with the international medical charity Doctors Without Border, announced that the diphtheria spread is inevitable in Yemen due to low vaccination rates, lack of access to medical care and so many people moving around and coming in contact with those infected.

The United Nations had described the current level of hunger in Yemen as “unprecedented,” emphasizing that 17 million people are now food insecure in the country.

A recent survey showed that almost one third of families have gaps in their diets, and hardly ever consume foods like pulses, vegetables, fruit, dairy products or meat, while the humanitarian food aid is reaching only a third of Yemen’s population.

Aid agency CARE also declared that more than 22 million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian aid, 7 million people face famine-like conditions.

More than 3 million pregnant and nursing women and children under 5 need support to prevent or cure malnutrition.

The United Nations has also warned that 8.4 million people in war-torn Yemen are “a step away from famine”, as Saudi Arabia and its allies are ceaselessly pounding the impoverished country.

“The lives of millions of people, including 8.4 million Yemenis who are a step away from famine, hinge on our ability to continue our operations and to provide health, safe water, shelter and nutrition support,” Jamie McGoldrick, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said in a statement on Monday.

“The continuing blockade of ports is limiting supplies of fuel, food and medicines, dramatically increasing the number of vulnerable people who need help,” he added.

The United Nations had warned that millions of people will die in Yemen, in what will be the world’s worst famine crisis in decades, unless the Saudi-led military coalition ends its devastating blockade and allows aid into the country.

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