RIYADH, Daily Star, March 26, 2018 – A military Arab-led coalition Monday threatened retaliation against Iran, accusing the Shiite power of being behind a barrage of Yemeni rebel missile attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Saudi forces said they intercepted seven missiles Sunday, including over the capital Riyadh, in a deadly escalation that coincided with the third anniversary of the coalition’s intervention in Yemen.
Displaying wreckage at a news conference in Riyadh of what it said were fragments of those missiles, the coalition claimed forensic analysis showed they were supplied to Houthi rebels by their ally Iran.
We “reserve the right to respond against Iran at the right time and right place,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki told reporters.
The missile strikes resulted in the first reported fatality from Houthi fire in the Saudi Arabian capital.
Egyptian national Abdul-Moteleb Ahmed, 38, died instantly in his bed when what appeared to be burning shrapnel struck his ramshackle room in Riyadh’s Um al-Hammam district, leaving a gaping hole in the roof, witnesses told by AFP at the site.
Three other Egyptian laborers in the same room were wounded and hospitalized, they said.
The Houthis said on their Al-Masirah television that Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport was among the targets.
Malki alleged the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Sanaa were using the airport there to launch missiles on Saudi Arabian territory, adding the coalition had targeted a “missiles shipment” at the facility.
Iran has repeatedly rejected claims it is arming the rebels.
An Arab-led military coalition intervened in Yemen on March 26, 2015 to try to restore the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after the Shiite Houthis and their allies took over large parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa.
Amnesty International, which has criticized both sides in the Yemen war for neglecting civilian safety, Monday said the “indiscriminate” Houthi missile attack “could constitute a war crime.”
Britain urged Iran to “stop sending in weapons which prolong the conflict,” while Tehran accused London – a key arms supplier for Saudi Arabia – of hypocrisy.
The U.S. State Department said Washington would support the Saudis’ “right to defend their borders against these threats.”
The Hadi government said Monday that the overnight attacks on Saudi Arabia amounted to “an open rejection of peace.”
The U.S. Senate last week rejected a bipartisan bid to end American involvement in Yemen’s war, voting down a rare effort to overrule presidential military authorization.
The U.S. has provided weapons, intelligence and aerial refueling to the Arab-led coalition.
Washington formally approved defense contracts worth more than $1 billion with Riyadh last Thursday during a high-profile visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud.