The United Arab Emirates intercepted two ballistic missiles targeting Abu Dhabi early Monday, the latest attack to target the Emirati capital, according to the state-run news agency.
The attack on Abu Dhabi, after another killing three people and wounding six, escalates tensions across the Persian Gulf as Yemen's yearslong civil war continues.
The war, pitting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels against a Saudi-led coalition, has become a regional conflict as negotiations continue over Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers. The collapse of the accord has sparked years of attacks across the region.
The state-owned WAM news agency said missile fragments fell harmlessly over the capital, Abu Dhabi.
The UAE Defense Ministry said that the UAE is ready to deal with any threats and that it takes all necessary measures to protect the state from all attacks.
Videos posted to social media show the sky over the capital light up before dawn Monday, with points of light looking like interceptor missiles in the sky. The videos were related to known features of Abu Dhabi.
The missile fire disrupted traffic into the Abu Dhabi International Airport, home to the long-haul carrier Etihad, for about an hour after the attack.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack came a week after Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed an attack on the Emirati capital that killed three people and wounded six others.
In recent days a Saudi-led coalition that the UAE backs launched punishing air strikes targeting Yemen, knocking the Arab world s poorest country off the internet and killing over 80 people at a detention center.
The Houthis had threatened to take revenge against the UAE and Saudi Arabia over the attacks. On Sunday, the Saudi-led coalition said a Houthi-launched ballistic missile landed in an industrial area in Jizan, Saudi Arabia, slightly wounding a foreigner.
A Houthi military spokesman did not respond to questions from The Associated Press on Monday.
The hard-line Iranian daily Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief was appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, published a front-line article on Sunday, quoting Houthi officials that the UAE would be attacked again with a headline: Evacuate Emirati commercial towers. The newspaper had faced a two-day publication ban in 2017 after it ran a headline saying Dubai was the next target for the Houthis.