UAE says it intercepts 2 ballistic missiles over Abu Dhabi

Dubai, Jan 24: The United Arab Emirates intercepted two ballistic missiles targeting Abu Dhabi early Monday, its state-run news agency reported, the latest attack to target the Emirati capital.

The attack on Abu Dhabi, after another last week killed three people and wounded six, further escalates tensions across the Persian Gulf as Yemen's yearslong civil war grinds on.

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.

The state-run WAM news agency said that missile fragments fell harmlessly over the capital, Abu Dhabi.

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, WAM quoted the UAE Defense Ministry as saying.

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.

A Houthi military spokesman did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press on Monday's attack.

The hard-line Iranian daily newspaper Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief was appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, just Sunday published a front-page article quoting Houthi officials that the UAE would be attacked again with a headline: Evacuate Emirati commercial towers.

The newspaper in 2017 had faced a two-day publication ban after it ran a headline saying Dubai was the next target for the Houthis.