Saudi shoots down Yemen rebel missile

Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia said its air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Yemen rebels in the capital, Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia is leading a military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen, and shortly after the missile launch, alliance aircraft struck Houthi positions south of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.
Saudi Arabia and Iran already support opposing sides in conflicts across the Middle East, and after the rebels fired a missile at the internati-
onal airport in Riyadh last month, the coalition warned that the failed attack could be considered “an act of war” against Saudi Arabia.
Coalition spokesman Col-onel Turki al-Maliki on Tuesday again pointed the finger at Iran. “This aggressive and arbitrary act by the armed Houthi Iranian group proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting the Houthis with qualitative capabilities,” he said, according to state-run Saudi Press Agency. The Saudi royal air defense forces spotted the launch of the missile from Yemen, he added.
Iran in the past has denied providing the Houthis with missiles to attack Saudi Arabia. The Houthis have said their military experts have the capability to deve-
lop Scud-type missiles. The Burkan 2-H launched on Tuesday is such a weapon.
Crispin Hawes, a managing director at Teneo Intelligence, a political risk consulting firm in London, predicted “a concerted effort by the Saudi government to push for action against Iran.”
“We have clearly entered a period where there is a direct threat to Saudi population centers, even with their air defense systems in place,” Hawes said. This will have a “depressing impact on the local capital markets and on economic activity in general,” he added.
A loud boom was heard in Riyadh and a column of white smoke could be seen briefly from a distance before the coalition announced it had intercepted the missile.
No injuries were reported, according to Sky News Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s benchmark stock index declined as
much as 0.4 percent before recovering the loss.
Yemen’s civil war, nearing the end of its third year, has become part of the broader struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran for regional influence. The coalition is fighting the rebels, who are members of the Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam, to restore the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a Sunni.