Insecurity: How UAE intercepts 2 ballistic missiles threatening business and tourism-friendly Abu Dhabi

*The United Arab Emirates has announced it intercepted two ballistic missiles targeting and threatening the business-friendly, tourism-focused efforts of the Emirates

*UAE Defence Ministry says it is to ‘deal with any threats’ and take all necessary measures to protect the state from all attacks

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

The United Arab Emirates authorities have said they intercepted two ballistic missiles claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels over the skies of Abu Dhabi early Monday, January 24, 2022, the second attack in a week targeted at the Emirati capital, attributed to Houthi terror gang.

The missile fire further escalated tensions across the Persian Gulf, which previously had seen a series of assaults near —but never indisputably on — Emirati soil amid Yemen’s years-long war and the collapse of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, state-run WAM agency report said.

UAE air hub

The UAE stated that the attacks threaten the business-friendly, tourism-focused efforts of the Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula also home to Dubai. For years, the country has marketed itself as a safe corner of an otherwise-dangerous neighborhood.

The videos on social media also indicated that the sky over Abu Dhabi light up before dawn Monday, with what appeared to be interceptor missiles racing into the clouds to target the incoming fire, report said.

The authorities further said that the two explosions later thundered through the city. The videos corresponded to known features of Abu Dhabi, noting the missile fragments fell harmlessly over Abu Dhabi.

The Emirates stated it “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 Defence Ministry as saying.

The missile fire was also said to have disrupted traffic into Abu Dhabi International Airport, home to the long-haul carrier Etihad, for about an hour after the attack.

Mohammed Abdul-Salam, a Houthi Spokesman, later tweeted: “The Yemeni Armed Forces will reveal, in the coming hours, details of a military operation in the UAE and Saudi Arabia,” Associated Press said

US Embassy alerts Americans living in UAE

Meanwhile, the United States (US) Embassy in Abu Dhabi later issued a security alert to Americans living in the UAE, warning citizens to “maintain a high level of security awareness.”

The alert, the US Embassy noted, included instructions on how to cope with missile attacks, something reportedly unheard-of previously in the UAE, a tourist destination home to skyscraper-studded Dubai and its long-haul carrier Emirates.

The terror attack came a week after Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed an attack on the Emirati capital targeting the airport and an Abu Dhabi National Oil Company fuel depot in the Mussafah neighborhood.

The attack on the fuel depot killed three people and wounded six others, report stated.

Though Emirati officials have not released images of the attacked sites, nor allowed journalists to see them, in recent days, a Saudi-led coalition that the UAE backs unleashed punishing airstrikes targeting Yemen, knocking the Arab world’s poorest country off the Internet and killed over 80 people at a detention centre.

Likewise, the Houthis had threatened to take revenge against the Emirates and Saudi Arabia over those attacks.

The Saudi-led coalition, Sunday, January 23 reportedly said a Houthi-launched ballistic missile landed in an industrial area in Jizan, Saudi Arabia, slightly wounding a foreigner.

The hardline 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,” report noted.

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.

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