Yemen's Houthi rebels claim attacks on Israel
Dubai(AP/PTI): Yemen's Houthi rebels for the first time on Tuesday claimed missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, drawing their main sponsor Iran closer into the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis had been suspected of an attack earlier this month targeting Israel by sending missiles and drones over the crucial shipping lane of the Red Sea, an assault that saw the US Navy shoot down the projectiles.
This time on Tuesday, however, Israel said its own fighter jets and its new Arrow missile defence system shot down two salvos of incoming fire hours apart as it approached the country's key Red Sea shipping port of Eilat.
The Houthis, who have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since 2014 as part of that country's ruinous war, claimed three attacks on Israel in a later military statement, without elaborating on the timeframe of the operations and whether Tuesday's salvos represented one or two attacks.
Beyond the attack that saw the US shoot down missiles, there had been a mysterious explosion Thursday that hit the Egyptian resort town of Taba, near the border with Israel. The blast, which Egyptian authorities have not explained, wounded six people.
"Our armed forces launched a large batch of ballistic missiles and a large number of drones at various targets of the Israeli enemy," Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a televised statement. "The Yemeni Armed Forces confirm that this operation is the third operation in support of our oppressed brothers in Palestine and confirm that we will continue to carry out more qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops."
For Israel, Tuesday's attack marked an incredibly rare reported in-combat use of the Arrow missile defence system, which intercepts long-range ballistic missiles with a warhead designed to destroy targets while they are in space, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"All aerial threats were intercepted outside of Israeli territory," the Israeli military said. "No infiltrations were identified into Israeli territory."
Saree did not identify the specific weapons used in the attack. However, the use of the arrow suggests it was a ballistic missile. The Houthis have a variant of its Burkan ballistic missile, modeled after a type of an Iranian missile, believed to be able to reach over 1,000 kilometers to strike near Eilat.
It wasn't clear whether American naval forces in the region saw the incoming fire, as the troop-and-aircraft-carrying USS Bataan and other elements of its strike group likely are in the Red Sea now, along with other US vessels. The US Navy's 5th Fleet, which patrols the Mideast, referred questions on Tuesday's attack to the Pentagon. Officials there did not respond to a request for comment.
Saudi Arabia also did not respond to questions. The kingdom saw four of its soldiers killed in its southern Jazan province in recent days in fighting with the Houthis, according to a report Tuesday by Bloomberg citing anonymous sources. That's even as Saudi Arabia has tried for months to reach a peace deal with the Houthis after a yearslong deadlock war against them.
The Houthis' declaration further draws Iran into the conflict. Tehran has long sponsored both the Houthis and Hamas, as well as the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which continues to trade deadly cross-border fire with the Israelis.
Iran's mission to the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Houthi attacks.
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Air India Express to operate flights from Mangaluru to Sharjah, Delhi
Mangaluru: Air India Express has announced in a press release that it will operate two-way flights between Mangaluru and Sharjah on daily basis, from March 16 to 28, given the current geopolitical situation in West Asia.
It said that the Mangaluru-Sharjah flight (IX 6057) will depart from Mangaluru at 1:25 pm and reach Sharjah at 4:05 pm. During the return journey, the flight will leave Sharjah at 5:05 pm and reach Mangaluru at 10:30 pm.
The airlines company said further that the flight from Mangaluru to Delhi (IX 1992) will leave Mangaluru at 9:30 am on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays and reach Delhi at 12:25 pm. It will depart from Delhi on the said days of the week at 5:15 am and reach Mangaluru at 8:30 am.
It added that the timing applies for Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays from March 16 till 25.
Air India Express added that, for the other days of the week, the Mangaluru flight (IX 1276) will depart at 8:30 am and reach Delhi at 11:45 am. It will depart at 5:00 am from Delhi and reach Mangaluru at 8:00 am.
