Yemen's Houthi militia reiterate rejection of peace efforts

Several Arab countries and Islamic organizations condemned on Sunday the Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen for attacking civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation strongly condemned the militias for targeting civilian locations and economic facilities in Saudi Arabia.

OIC Secretary-General Hissein Ibrahim Taha reiterated the organization's condemnation of the Houthis' criminal practices, saying it supports all the measures Saudi Arabia takes to protect its territories, citizens and residents and economic installations.

Egypt strongly condemned the Houthi attacks, saying they were a "grave escalation, flagrant violation of the security and sovereignty of the Kingdom and direct threat to the security and stability of the region."

The foreign ministry stressed its solidarity with the Kingdom and the measures it takes to confront these persistent "cowardly hostile attacks."

The Saudi-led Arab coalition announced on Saturday that it had destroyed four armed drones fired by the militias towards the southern region of the Kingdom.

A statement by the coalition said that the Houthi attacks targeted a distribution oil facility of the Aramco company in Jazan, a power station in Dhahran Al-Janub, a liquified natural gas plant in Khamis Mushait and the water desalination plant in Yanbu.

"The attacks caused material damage to the facilities and neighboring residential buildings and there were no casualties," the coalition said, adding that "this escalation represents the Houthis' rejection to the peace efforts."

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of the northern provinces and forced the Saudi-backed Yemeni government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in the following year to support the Yemeni government.