Saudis shoot down Yemen rebel missile
THE SAUDI Arabian air defense Saturday confirmed it intercepted a missile aimed at an airport in the capital Riyadh.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, writing on social media that they launched the long-range explosive — which traveled more than 300 miles over the border and into Saudi Arabia — at the King Khalid International Airport, according to Al Jazeera.
Passengers there reported hearing a large explosion and said they saw black smoke billowing in the distance, though the airport was not affected by the strike.
A spokesman for the rebels said they fired a Burkan 2-H missile, a ballistic missile with a range of more than 500 miles.
“The capital cities of countries that continually shell us, targeting innocent civilians, will not be spared from our missiles,” the spokesman told Al Jazeera.
The official Saudi news agency SPA reported that forces used a surface-to-air Patriot missile to destroy the weapon launched in the direction of an uninhabited area just east of the airport, according to the news site.