DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES --
The United Arab Emirates intercepted a number of drones fired on the nation Wednesday, the UAE army mentioned, the fourth such assault on the federation in latest weeks.
A little bit-known group that beforehand claimed a January 2021 assault concentrating on a palace in Saudi Arabia mentioned it was accountable, an assault that authorities imagine got here from Iraq. That raises the likelihood the Emirates now's being focused from its north and south after three latest assaults launched by Yemen's Iran-backed rebels.
The insurgent Houthis have claimed accountability for the previous few drone and missile assaults on the UAE -- strikes which have widened Yemen's 7-year-old civil warfare and fuelled regional tensions.
In a brief assertion simply earlier than midnight Wednesday on Twitter, the Emirati Defence Ministry mentioned it had destroyed three "hostile drones" that focused the UAE at daybreak. It mentioned the interception occurred "away from populated areas," with out elaborating.
The acknowledgement got here a number of hours after an internet account related to Awliya Wa'advert al-Haq, or "The True Promise Brigades," claimed it had launched "4 drones concentrating on very important amenities in Abu Dhabi." The group mentioned it launched the assault in retaliation for the Emirates' insurance policies in each Iraq and Yemen.
It wasn't instantly doable to make clear the discrepancy within the variety of drones allegedly used within the assault. The Emirati's two-sentence assertion additionally supplied no particulars concerning the course of the assault.
The group has threatened the Emirates previously after its one recognized assault, a Jan. 23 assault final yr on the Yamama Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Each Iraqi and American officers imagine that Saudi assault originated from Iraq.
The Washington Institute for Close to-East Coverage has urged the brigade has ties to Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades. That Iran-backed group is on a U.S. listing of terrorist organizations and is accused by U.S. officers of concentrating on American forces in Iraq. The group is separate from the Lebanese group of the identical title.
The Emirates has beforehand been threatened by Iranian-backed teams in Iraq over their perception the UAE interfered in Iraq's latest parliamentary elections.
The Houthis have been battling a Saudi-led coalition that features the UAE since 2015 after the rebels took management of Yemen's capital, Sanaa. The warfare reached Emirati soil for the first-known time final month, when the Houthis fired drones and missiles on the nation. U.S. and Emirati forces have collectively intercepted the previous two aerial assaults, together with one earlier this week as Israel's president started a historic go to to the Gulf Arab nation.
One other assault in mid-January killed three staff from India and Pakistan and wounded six others.
The Houthis' media workplace additionally attributed the assault to "The True Promise Brigades."
The UAE mentioned it was prepared "to take care of any threats and is taking all vital measures to guard the state."
The escalation has threatened the UAE's status as a uncommon haven for worldwide enterprise in a area mired in battle and collapse. Expats outnumber locals within the Emirates practically 9 to at least one.
On Wednesday, the British International Workplace up to date its journey steerage to the UAE to notice: "Additional assaults are very probably."
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Related Press writers Jon Gambrell and Lujain Jo in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
A person walks previous the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020. (Nir Elias/Pool by way of AP)
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