Yemen’s Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels fired a barrage of seven ballistic missiles targeting Saudi Arabia late Sunday on the third anniversary of the war in Yemen, with fragments of one missile over Riyadh killing one person and wounding two, The Times of Israel reported.
Saudi air defense destroyed three of the missiles over north-eastern Riyadh shortly before midnight, with debris killing a man in what was the first death in the capital during the conflict. Other missiles were fired at the southern cities of Najran, Jizan and Khamis Mushait.
The three casualties had been hit by falling shrapnel which fell on a home in Riyadh, killing an Egyptian resident and wounding two other Egyptians.
The attack marked the third time in five months that missiles from Yemen reached Saudi Arabia, as the Houthis step up efforts to demonstrate they can reach Saudi territory, including Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.
The latest escalation will likely spark new criticism of Iran’s role in the conflict, as the Houthis identified some of the missiles used as a type that the United States and the United Nations say comes from Tehran. According to the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen, the Burkan mirrors characteristics of an Iranian Qiam ballistic missile.
With language in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which implemented the nuclear deal, watering down the prohibition for Iran to develop ballistic missiles, Iran has tested at least 23 such missiles and continues to export them. Last year the United Kingdom, France, and Germany sent a letter along with the United States to UN Secretary General António Guterres charging that Iran has violated 2231 by launching a satellite on an advanced missile. Earlier this year, Germany and France have called on Iran to end its ballistic missile program.
“This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Houthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities,” coalition spokesman Turki Al Malki said. “The firing of multiple ballistic missiles towards cities is a serious development.”
A United Nations panel of experts determined earlier this year that Iran was violating a Security Council ban on supplying weapons to the Houthi rebels in in Yemen. This confirmed charges made by the U.S., which provides support to the coalition, that Iran was illicitly supplying the Houthis with weapons.
Since Saudi Arabia entered the proxy war with Iran, around 10,000 people have been killed and 53,000 wounded in Yemen, triggering what the UN describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
[Photo: Al Arabiya / Twitter ]