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2018 Riyadh missile strike
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Location
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Date
| 26 March 2018
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Executed by
| Houthis
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Casualties
| One killed
Two injured
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Bombings and terrorist attacks in Yemen
Houthi missile and drone attacks in Yemen
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| Attacks
Military operations
Diplomacy
Effects
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The
2018 Riyadh missile strike
was a series of seven missiles launched into
Saudi Arabia
by Shiite
Houthi
rebels on 26 March 2018, targeting the King Khalid International Airport and other sites. Saudi forces claimed to have destroyed all seven missiles, three of them targeting
Riyadh
, two targeting
Jazan
, and one targeting
Najran
.
[1]
[2]
However, according to
Jeffrey Lewis
, director of the
East Asia Nonproliferation Program at CNS
, the Saudis failed to intercept the missiles following a malfunction of the
MIM-104 Patriot
system.
[3]
One video appeared to show a Patriot missile launch on Sunday night go rapidly wrong, with the missile changing course midair, crashing into a neighborhood in Riyadh and exploding. Another appeared to detonate shortly after being launched in the Saudi capital.
The news channel,
Al Arabiya
, aired footage that it said showed Patriot missile batteries firing at the incoming Houthi missiles. Online videos showed what appeared to be a missile fuselage lying on a street in Riyadh.
The
UN Security Council
condemned the attack.
[4]
An
Egyptian
man was killed and two others were wounded when a fragment of one of the missiles over Riyadh fell over a neighborhood.
[5]
Al Masirah
, a Houthi-run satellite news channel, identified some of the missiles fired as the Burkan, or Volcano missile. The United Nations, Western countries and the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen all said the
Burkan
mirrors characteristics of an Iranian
Qiam
ballistic missile. They said that suggests Iran either shared the technology or smuggled disassembled missiles to the Houthis, who then rebuilt them.
[
citation needed
]
A spokesperson for the embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia said "seven ballistic missiles were shot toward Saudi Arabia from within Yemen." A press conference was held the same day at 1 p.m. "to provide more details about this aggressive act."
[6]
References
[
edit
]
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Diplomatic posts
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Diplomacy
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Conflicts
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Incidents
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Iranian relations
with
GCC
member states
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Related
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Background
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Conflicts
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Incidents
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Iranian relations
with
GCC
member states
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Related topics
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