Iran-backed rebels add accurate rockets to their armoury

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have developed a sophisticated ballistic missile arsenal over the past seven years, despite a UN arms embargo.

Their missile strikes may seem random, but Yemeni government officials say they are aimed at influential local leaders and, in contravention of the Geneva Conventions, vital infrastructure.

A UN Panel of Experts investigation last year agreed with many other reports that there were strong links between the Houthi missile programme and weapons designed and supplied by Iran.

Tehran has long displayed expertise in building ballistic missiles, and in recent years has dramatically improved their accuracy.

The Iran-backed rebels have progressed from firing projectiles blindly towards government-held areas to being able to accurately strike targets around the internationally recognised government’s last northern stronghold of Marib.

UN weapons inspectors, ballistics experts and the Saudi-led coalition have analysed debris left after strikes and the projectiles paraded by the rebels in propaganda videos.

During the opening phases of the conflict in 2014 and 2015, much of the Houthis’ weaponry was raided from military stockpiles.

But experts believe Iran has helped them develop and build increasingly sophisticated missiles.

Today, their arsenal includes the Burkan-3 for longrange strikes of up to 1,200 kilometres, Badr P-1 rockets with a 150km range and the

Soviet-era Frog-7, which has a 65km range and is called the Zelzal by the Houthis.

Most of these missiles are powerful enough to destroy a house or mosque. Experts say they are modelled on known Iranian weapons and were probably made in Iran in pieces, smuggled by boat into Yemen, then reassembled.

This was confirmed by a US briefing in February last year on the seizure of a dhow loaded with missile components bound for Yemen.

The Burkan-3 missile lacks accuracy and is often used in cross-border rocket attacks aimed at targets in Saudi Arabia.

It is based on a Soviet-era Scud C missile, once feared by US-led coalition forces during the First Gulf War but vulnerable to modern defences such as the US-made

Patriot Air Defence systems in Saudi Arabia.

The Zelzal travels at three times the speed of sound but is also extremely inaccurate, striking within 400 metres of the intended target.

There is evidence that Iranian advisers in Lebanon have fitted a variant, the Zelzal-2, with a GPS guidance kit to increase accuracy.

The Badr P-1 is claimed by the rebels to be far more accurate than any previous missile in their inventory, able to hit a target as small as three metres in diameter.

Analysis of a 2018 Badr P-1 missile attack in Yemen by the Atlantic Council think tank concluded that the missile was almost certainly fired by the Houthis with Iranian assistance.