Saudi Arabia intercepts Riyadh-bound ballistic missile

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The tension between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis continued to escalate on Tuesday, with a ballistic missile fired towards Saudi capital Riyadh by the Houthis.

The missile was successfully intercepted with no immediate reports of injuries or damages, said Col. Turki al-Maliki, the Saudi-led military coalition spokesperson, in a statement.

According to Al-Masirah TV, a Houthi-run television station, the Burkan-2 missile targeted a meeting of royal leaders at the al-Yamama Palace in Riyadh.

Witnesses in the area reported an explosion heard in Saudi Arabia's capital, and it was the second Houthi missile attack on Riyadh in the past two months.

"I was cleaning the bathroom when I heard a big explosion outside and I saw people coming out. We saw a smoke up here on the rooftop," said Edward Hernardes, a Riyadh resident.

Operations will continue into the evening, while the Saudi-led coalition carries out air strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen's southern Sanaa, reported Al Arabiya, the Saudi-owned television.

Yemen has been torn by a war between the internationally-recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebel movement, with the Saudi-led military coalition siding with President Hadi since 2015.

A Houthi militant walks in front of a government compound, destroyed by recent Saudi-led air strikes, in Yemen's northwestern city of Amran July 27, 2015. / Reuters Photo‍

At least 136 civilians have been killed in over 10 days of Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen this month, the United Nations said Tuesday.

"We are deeply concerned by the recent surge in civilian casualties in Yemen as a result of intensified air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition," said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) to reporters in Geneva.

Controversy over Tehran-made missile

The ballistic missile intercepted was "Iranian-Houthi," said Saudi Arabia, days after Washington accused Tehran of manufacturing a missile fired by the Yemeni rebels at the Saudi capital last month.

"Coalition forces confirm intercepting an Iranian-Houthi missile targeting south of Riyadh," the government-run Center for International Communication wrote on its Twitter account.

US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley claimed there was "undeniable" evidence that last month's missile was "made in Iran" during a press conference at a military base in Washington on December 14.

Pieces of a ballistic missile on display next to Haley, intending to prove Iran violated UN resolutions by providing weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen. / AFP Photo

Haley's comments contradict the findings from a UN investigation which found no firm conclusion on whether the missile came from an Iranian supplier, saying only that it had a "common origin" to some Iranian designs.

The charge was strongly denied by Tehran.

“This purportedly evidence, put on public display today, is as much fabricated as the one presented on some other occasions earlier,” said Alireza Miryousefi, spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations.

UNHCR spokesperson Colville called on all sides in the conflict to "take all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimize, the impact of violence on civilians."

(Cover Photo: Reuters file of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)

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