Ballistic Missile Fired by Houthi Rebels Showers Arab Capital with Debris.

Houthi rebels inside Yemen have claimed responsibility for a short range ballistic missile attack against the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh on Nov. 4. An announcement made on social media from Houthi rebels inside Yemen claimed that King Khalid International Airport was the intended target for the missile strike on Saturday night.

The Houthi ballistic missile, a Burkan H-2 according to media sources across the Middle East, is a mobile short-range ballistic missile armed with a conventional 500-kilogram warhead. In some variants, the missile can carry a nuclear warhead. The missile is roughly similar to the Scud missiles used by Iraq during the Gulf wars.

The Burkan H-2 was intercepted by a Saudi anti-missile defense system, likely a U.S. supplied Raytheon MIM-104 Patriot anti-missile system. The Saudis also employ the Raytheon Improved Hawk air defense system, primarily for defense against aircraft. The Saudis have new THAAD (Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense) anti-missile systems on order from the U.S. but have not yet received the more advanced system.

The following video allegedly shows the anti-missile defense system at work during the attack.

According to information published on Al Arabiya, an official spokesman for the coalition forces in support of legitimacy inside Yemen, the anti-Houthi government of Yemen, Colonel Turki al-Maliki said that, “At 8:07 pm local time a rocket was fired from within the territory of Yemen towards the territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

In the official Yemeni government media statement made Saturday Colonel al-Maliki went on to say, “The rocket was aimed at the capital of Riyadh and was launched indiscriminately and absurdly to target the civilian and populated areas, where it was intercepted and the fragments fell in an uninhabited area east of King Khalid International Airport.”

The official Yemeni government has been at war with the Houthi rebellion inside Yemen since June 2004. The Houthi ballistic missile attack against Saudi Arabia from inside a rebel controlled area of Yemen is in retaliation for Saudi support of the Yemeni government. The Saudi support of the Yemeni government began in 2015.

On October 27, 2017, the Houthi’s claimed to have shot down a Royal Saudi Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon multirole aircraft over the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a. It was the second time the Saudis lost a Typhoon over Yemen during Operation Decisive Storm, the Saudi-led air campaign against the Houthis inside Yemen.

Arab news outlets report a similar missile strike was launched from Houthi controlled territory toward Saudi Arabia on October 30. The missile fell far short of its intended target in Saudi Arabia, landing inside Yemen after a possible malfunction.

Al Masirah, a TV network run by the Houthi rebels, also claimed responsibility for the attack on their social media account.

Top image: combo from Social Media posts (via Arab News)

Yemeni media outlets are reporting that a Royal Saudi Air Force Typhoon was shot down over Yemen yesterday. However no pictures have been released to back Houthi rebels claims, so far.

According to several still unconfirmed media reports, a RSAF Typhoon fighter was shot down by Yemen’s Shia Houthi rebels on Oct. 27. The fate of the pilot is unknown at the time of writing. No images of the wreckage or any other kind of evidence have been released so far.

“Yemen’s air defense unit told the country’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that the aircraft had been targeted with a surface-to-air missile as it was flying in the skies over Nihm district east of the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a on Friday evening,” Yemen Press reported.

For the moment there haven’t been comments by the Saudi-led coalition over the Houthi claims. Still, Saudi sources, including popular Saudi military aviation expert @MbKS15, deny the accident has occurred, saying it’s just propaganda.

Earlier this month, on Oct. 1, a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone was shot down over Sanaa: footage filmed from several different locations (the UAV was over the capital in daylight conditions when it was destroyed) depicted the incident from start to finish.

If confirmed, this would be the second Saudi Typhoon lost over Yemen while supporting Operation Decisive Storm, the Saudi-led air war on the Houthi rebels in the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula: indeed, a RSAF Eurofighter crashed into a mountain in Al Wade’a district on Sept. 13. Back then, the cause of the crash was an alleged technical failure during a CAS (Close Air Support) mission. The pilot, identified as Mahna al-Biz, died in the accident.

Anyway, provide the reports are accurate and a Typhoon has really been shot down, the accident would be the fourth crash of a Eurofighter jet in one a a half months: along with the already mentioned RSAF Typhoon combat aircraft that crashed in Yemen on Sept. 13, 2017, on Sept. 24, an Italian Air Force Typhoon crashed into the sea while performing its solo display during the Terracina airshow killing the test pilot, whereas on Oct. 12, a Spanish Air Force Eurofighter crashed into the ground while returning to Albacete after taking part in the National Day Parade over Madrid.

We will update this post as soon as new official details/confirmation/denial emerge.

Top image credit: Alessandro Fucito