Watch: Saudi Arabia intercepts missile targeting international airport
The attack underscores the threat posed by the raging conflict in Yemen, increasingly spilling across the border since a Saudi-led coalition began its military intervention in 2015
Saudi Arabia said its forces intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen toward one of the kingdom’s major international airports on the outskirts of the capital, Riyadh.
The missile was fired across Saudi Arabia’s southern border by Yemen’s Houthi rebels Saturday, according to several Houthi-owned media outlets, including Al-Masirah and SABA. The rebels are at war with the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia said the missile was shot down by its air defence forces, with fragments of the missile landing in an uninhabited area north of the capital.
Watch: Saudi Arabia destroys ballistic missile over Riyadh
Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Authority said the missile did not cause any damage to the King Khalid International Airport and that flights were not disrupted.
This is the first time that a Houthi missile has come so close to a heavily populated area, and it appears to be the farthest that such a missile has reached inside Saudi Arabia. Riyadh is around 1,000 kilometres north of the border with Yemen.