Saudi destroy missile launched by Houthi rebels against Riyadh’s King Khaled airport
Saudi Arabia’s State media reported that the country intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile in the northeast of its capital Riyadh, aimed at the King Khaled International Airport.
The missile was launched by Houthi rebels from Yemen, reported Gulf Times.
State-run news channel Al Ekhbariya said the missile ‘was of limited size’ and ‘no injuries or damage’ were reported.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a loud explosion in Riyadh, saying they fired a long-range ballistic missile — a Burkan 2-H — with a range of more than 800km - towards the city, according to Al Jazeera.
“The capital cities of countries that continually shell us, targeting innocent civilians, will not be spared from our missiles,” a spokesman for the Houthi rebels said.
Videos on social media showed smoke rising from an area near Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.
The official Saudi news agency SPA quoted Colonel Turki Al Maliki as saying that at exactly 8:07pm local time (17:07 GMT), a ballistic missile was fired from Yemeni territory towards the kingdom.
Maliki said Saudi forces used a surface-to-air Patriot missile to destroy the missile, which shattered into fragments in an uninhabited area east of the airport.
He added that there were no reported casualties.
Saudi Arabia's southern neighbour Yemen has been torn apart by a war between the Saudi-backed government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Houthi rebels. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to prop up Hadi’s government after the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa.
United Nations-backed talks have failed to broker a political settlement to end the fighting, which has left more than 8,600 people dead since the coalition intervened.
