Yemen Houthi rebels have fired a ballistic missile into Saudi Arabia, hitting a military camp near Riyadh, according to several media reports. The incident was reported as having happened on Sunday night. According to the New Arab, the attack was described by a Houthi spokesperson as a "successful test-launch of a precision scud missile."
SABA News Agency quoted the Houthi government as saying, "Saudi Arabia is now in the range of our missiles and, God willing, what is coming will be greater."
Saudi Arabia struck by surface to surface missile - story run by 21 Century Wire
Meanwhile, 21st Century Wire ran a breaking news story that claimed "Sunday evening a surface-to-surface missile was fired by the Yemeni Army and has hit the Saudi capital.
It is not confirmed if it struck within the city limits, or nearby."
All the media reports indicate that Saudi Arabia has denied the missile attack took place and that the sound of the explosion as the missile landed was in fact, a meteorite or an earthquake. Media sources do mention that across social media, local witnesses have stressed that it was, in fact, a missile and that it hit a military camp about 40 kilometers away from Riyadh.
Twitter reacts to reports of missile in Saudi Arabia
Twitter is talking about Saudi Arabia but mostly the users are squabbling over whether Trump should have included the country in his so-called "Muslim Ban," and the reaction to the missile attack has been low key, even though some anti-Trump doomsayer's have posted that the attack is the "start of it all." There is the inference that the next world war is about to happen, but in reality, the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen is not new.
@asamjulian @LeahR77 they just lobbed a rocket into Ryad, Saudi Arabia @ljcambria
— Simpattyco34 (@Simpattyco34) February 6, 2017
Conflict with Yemen in the middle east
Regional News outlets reported in October last year that a missile had been fired from Yemen against a target near the city of Jeddah. 21st Century Newswire cited sources as saying that the "Yemeni army and popular forces launched a 12.5-meter-long Borkan-1 ballistic missile from Sa’ada province landing at a Saudi Airbase in Jeddah." Business Standard reported that last month that yet another missile, a Borkan-1 "reportedly killed 80 coalition soldiers on a Saudi-UAE military base on Zuqar Island in the Red Sea."
Saudi Arabia has been in a conflict situation with Yemen since 2015 and they lead a coalition of nearly 10 Middle Eastern countries.
The Houthi of Yemen is an Iranian-backed military militia. Alaraby explains that the Houthi's slogan in 2003 was "God is great, death to the US, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam." In 2014–2015 Houthis, assisted by the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, took over the government of Sana'a. They announced the government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi had fallen.
Since then the Houthis have consolidated their control of much of the north of Yemen and are resisting the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen that looks to restore the internationally-recognized Yemeni government to power.
