Cross-border rocket fire from Yemen kills 9 in Saudi Arabia

Nine people were killed on Tuesday when rockets fired from within Yemeni territory hit an industrial area of Saudi Arabia close to a main power station.

The Saudi city of Najran was reportedly targeted with an Iranian-made Zelzal rocket on Tuesday evening, causing the deaths of six Saudi nationals and three Saudi residents whose nationalities were not immediately known.

Images from the scene showed smoke billowing from a car that had been hit, and official vehicles speeding from the scene carrying injured people to hospital.

Sources on the ground, who asked to remain anonymous, told Middle East Eye that the site hit by the rockets was close to a key electrical power station, and was less than a kilometre from oil plants run by state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco.

The rockets were reportedly fired from within Yemeni territory by Houthi rebels, causing civilian casualties.

Local sources told MEE that Najran has been hit by almost daily rocket fire over the past week, and that Tuesday's was launched using an Iranian-made Zelzal rocket. 

The reported attacks come after the breakdown of months of UN-sponsored talks in Kuwait aimed at finding a political solution to a war that has devastated Yemen since its outbreak last March.

The Houthi rebels formed a so-called Supreme Political Council late last month, in a move that put peace talks in Kuwait on hold.

Coalition strikes on Tuesday hit Abs, Saada and areas surrounding Sanaa, military sources and residents said.

The coalition resumed raids on the capital Sanaa on 9 August, almost three days after the talks were suspended, with one strike hitting a food factory, killing 14 people.

That forced the closure of Sanaa airport, but its director said three flights landed on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Yemeni Security forces found a depot of weapons and explosives that belong to the Islamic State (IS) group on Tuesday morning in Aden.

During a raid, security forces arrested a man with homemade mines and bombs ready to detonate.

“Weapons and explosives were stored within a house in the area of Jaula, in northern Aden,” a security source said.