Saudis Patriots Intercept Yemini Scud missiles

Saudi Arabia has shot down the scud missile fired by Yemen’s rebels towards the territory on Wednesday.

The kingdom's air defence further said that they directed air attacks against the source of fire and destroyed missile launch pad inside Yemen, various media reported today.

The Scud missile was aimed at an electricity station in Saudi Arabia’s Jizan province, Brigadier General Sharaf Luqman, a spokesman for the Yemeni forces fighting alongside the Houthis, said. The strike was a response to the Saudi aggression on Yemen, he added.

However, regarding aggression on Yemen, spokesman for the Saudi Forces, Ahmed Asiri said, "It is a tactical move, which implies no territorial ambitions". The action was aimed at preventing the Houthis and their allies from taking positions near the Saudi border. "This work has been going on since the start of operations." he added.

The Scud had been launched at Saudi Arabia twice by Yemeni forces. However, both the time, they were shot down by US provided Patriot missiles. Scud is a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The variants are the R-11 (the first version), R-17 and R-300 Elbrus (later developments). Some of the variants are developed in other countries based on the Soviet design.

Patriot is a long-range, all-altitude, all-weather US air defence system to counter tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and advanced aircraft. The Patriot (MIM-104) is produced by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Apart from the US, Patriot is in service in Egypt, Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan.