Houthi rebel missile strikes Riyadh military base: Reports

Yemen's Houthi rebels have reportedly fired a surface to surface missile that hit a Saudi military camp 40 kilometer west of Riyadh on Sunday night.

According to some media reports, the Saudi Ministry of Defence has not commented on the incident, but a number of local citizens reported on Twitter that the missile hit a military camp located to the west of al-Mazahimiyah, a town near Riyadh.

According to Al-Masdar News, the Houthi rebels reportedly announced the successful launch of a variant of Russian Scud-type missile known as "Borkan" at around 8:00 p.m. GMT.

Yemen's SABA News agency quoted a Houthi spokesperson announcing the attack as a "successful test-fire on a precision long-distance ballistic missile."

 

"We stress that the capital of [expletive] Saudi Arabia is now in the range of our missiles and, God willing, what is coming will be greater," a statement from the Houthi Government said.

Saudi Minister of Defence, Mohammad bin Salman, was at a meeting with Yemeni President Hadi at the time of the attack.

Another media outlet, The New Arab reported that Saudi is attempting to cover-up the attack, saying that the sound of the explosion in Riyadh was an earthquake or meteor.

According to sources, a state of emergency has been declared in the country.

Earlier on January 31, a Borkan-1 missile reportedly killed 80 coalition soldiers on a Saudi-UAE military base on Zuqar Island in the Red Sea. The attack was never confirmed or denied by the Saudi-led coalition.

Saudi Arabia militarily intervened in the Yemeni Conflict in 2015, leading a coalition of almost 10 Middle Eastern countries.