BICOM

Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for firing a missile at Riyadh on Saturday. The missile was destroyed in an unpopulated area on the outskirts of Riyadh, near the airport.

Houthi sources told Al-Jazeera that they launched a Burkan 2-H missile, a Scud-type missile with a range of more than 800km. The Houthi’s said: “the capital cities of countries that continually shell us, targeting innocent civilians, will not be spared from our missiles.”

Colonel Turki al-Maliki told the official Saudi news agency SPA  that Saudi forces used a Patriot surface-to-air missile to destroy the incoming missile. This is the first time a Houthi missile has been fired so far into Saudi Arabian territory and so close to a heavily populated area.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen released a statement blaming Iran for Saturday’s missile attack, stating that “Iran’s role and its direct command of its Houthi proxy in this matter constitutes a clear act of aggression that targets neighbouring countries, and threatens peace and security in the region and globally. Therefore, the coalition’s command considers this a blatant act of military aggression by the Iranian regime, and could rise to be considered as an act of war against the kingdom of Saudi Arabia”.

US President Donald Trump blamed Iran for the attack, stating that “a shot was just taken by Iran, in my opinion, at Saudi Arabia. And our system [Patriot Missile Battery] knocked it down. That’s how good we are. Nobody makes what we make and now we’re selling it all over the world”. Following the attack, the Saudi-led coalition launched a wave of airstrikes on the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, apparently in response to the missile attack.

BBC News reports that UN-brokered talks have failed to end the bloodshed in Yemen, which has claimed more than 8,600 lives and injured nearly 50,000 since the Saudi-led campaign began. The conflict has also left 20.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, created the world’s largest food security emergency, and led to a cholera outbreak that is believed to have affected 884,000 people and caused 2,184 deaths.