Saudis: Yemen rebels targeted desalination plant

Saudi Arabia says Yemen’s Houthi rebels have fired a rocket into the kingdom targeting a desalination plant, but that no one was wounded and the rocket caused no damage.

The state-run Saudi Press Agency on Thursday reported the attack, quoting military spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki. The attack took place late Wednesday night.

The Iranian-backed Houthis through their Al-Masirah satellite channel claimed that they targeted a power plant in Jizan in Saudi Arabia.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders earlier said President Donald Trump had been “briefed on the reports of a missile strike in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

It wasn’t immediately clear why the U.S. would brief Trump over the incident if it caused no damage.

The attack comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says the shooting down of a U.S. drone has sent “a clear message” to America.

Gen. Hossein Salami said also says that Iran does “not have any intention for war with any country, but we are ready for war.”

His speech was carried live on Iranian state television on Thursday, shortly after U.S. and Iranian officials acknowledged the shooting down of the drone.

The Guard says it shot down the American drone over Iranian airspace, while U.S. officials told The Associated Press the downing happened over international airspace in the Strait of Hormuz.

A U.S. official says that an Iranian surface-to-air missile shot down a U.S. drone flying in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday on condition of anonymity as the information had yet to be cleared for release to the public.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Thursday it shot down a U.S. drone amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over its collapsing nuclear deal.

It said the U.S. drone was flying in Iranian airspace, contradicting the U.S. official.

The reported downing of the RQ-4 Global Hawk comes after the U.S. military previously alleged Iran fired a missile at another drone last week that responded to the attack on two oil tankers near the Gulf of Oman. The U.S. blames Iran for the attack on the ships, something Tehran denies.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency says the country’s Revolutionary Guard has shot down a U.S. drone. The U.S. military declined to immediately comment.

IRNA said Thursday the drone was hit when it entered Iranian airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province.

IRNA, citing the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, identified the drone as an RQ-4 Global Hawk.

Capt. Bill Urban, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, declined to comment when asked if an American drone was shot down.

However, he told The Associated Press: “There was no drone over Iranian territory.”

The reported shootdown comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. It takes root in President Donald Trump’s decision a year ago to withdraw America from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.