RIYADH: In a potentially major escalation of the months-long war, Yemeni rebels fired a Scud missile into Saudi Arabia early on Saturday. The attack suggests that despite more than two months of air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition, Yemen’s Shia rebels still have the military firepower to threaten cities inside Saudi Arabia.

According to the official Saudi Press Agency, two missiles launched from a Patriot missile battery shot down the Scud before dawn near the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait.

The agency did not report any casualties in the attack, the first use of a Cold War-era Scud by the rebels since Saudi-led air strikes targeting the Houthis began in late March.

Yemen’s state news agency SABA, now controlled by the Houthis, said the rebels fired the Scud. The Houthis are allied with military and security forces loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Khamis Mushait is home to the King Khalid Air Base, the largest such facility in that part of the country. Saudis on social media reported hearing air raid sirens go off around the city during the attack.

The Yemeni military was widely believed to possess around 300 Scud missiles, most of which fell into the hands of the rebels. In April, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Saudi Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri, implied that the Scud arsenal in Yemen had been seriously degraded as a result of the air strikes.

“As coalition forces, we confirm that all Houthi capabilities were targeted, foremost their ballistic missiles,” Asiri said at the time.

On Saturday, Asiri told the Saudi-owned Al-Hadath news channel that coalition forces have destroyed “most of” Yemen’s Scuds. Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a professor of political science at United Arab Emirates University, said Saturday’s attack was a way for the Houthis and their allies to signal that they still have fight left despite months of air strikes.

The Emirates is a member of the Saudi-led coalition. “It is an escalation,” Abdullah said.

“It is clear now there has not been a knockout and a complete demolition of Houthi firepower”. The Saudis and Western powers accuse the Houthis of receiving military support from Shia power Iran as part of a larger proxy war between the Sunni kingdom and the Islamic Republic across the Mideast.

Tehran and the rebels deny the allegations, though Iran has acknowledged sending humanitarian aid to the Houthis. Saudi Arabia leads a coalition targeting the rebels in air strikes in support of Yemen’s exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2015

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