Illustrative image
On August 8, the Yemeni Missiles Force [loyal to the Houthis] announced that it had launched a Badir-1 “ballistic missile” at the industrial city in the southern Saudi province of Jizan. The same industrial city was targeted by the Yemeni Missiles Force with rockets many times in the last three months.
The Badir-1, which was first revealed on March 22, is in fact a locally-made copy of the Iranian-made solid fuel artillery rocket, Fajir-3. The rocket has a high accuracy and a speed over 4,5 Mach, according to the Yemeni Missiles Force.
Minutes after the Yemeni Missiles Force announcement, the UAE-based al-Arabiya TV reported that the Royal Saudi Air Defense Force (RSAD) tracked and intercepted a “ballistic missile” of the Houthis over Jizan. However, local sources have not confirmed al-Arabiya claims so far.
According to the Saudi-led coalition, the Yemeni Missiles Forces launches its rockets and missiles from the northern Yemeni province of Saada, which is considered the heartland of the Houthis. Usually, the coalition responds to such attacks by carrying out airstrikes on the Houthis’ positions in the province.
Do these things hit & damage anything in SA or is it all PR?
IMO, a bit of both.
It’s always PR. Houthis shoot missiles at a Saudi targets, but rarely report specific results. Saudis always claim they intercept the missiles, or the missle hit an open space in the desert and didn’t cause any damage. Any incidents at the targeted site are always claimed to be unrelated to the Houthi missile.
The Saudis have an iron-fisted grip on their own media – they don’t allow it to report news that would hurt the image of MbS or highlight his failures. There is no such thing like ‘independent reporting’ in the KSA. International reporters working out of the KSA would be rooted out and eliminated if discovered sending out ‘bad’ news.
Social media is monitored and controlled, and users know that – they are unlikely to send out negative information. We do get a few cell-phone videos of anti-missile launches on occasion. Other than that, few people either inside or outside of KSA really knows what happened or didn’t happen from a Houthi missile.
They had a few big successes a few years back but now the saudis have their US-supplied Patriot defences shooting down the dangerous ones. The rest malfunction or explode in the middle of the desert.