When Shia rebels blasted a ballistic missile from Yemen toward the Saudi capital last month, Riyadh officials said they had intercepted and destroyed the incoming rocket. But in an analysis published Monday by the New York Times, an arms expert and a research team examined photo and video evidence and found that Saudi Arabia may actually have missed the missile with interceptors from a US-made Patriot defense system.
The November 4 attack was the first missile Shia rebels had aimed at the heart of the Saudi capital, underscoring the growing threat posed by the raging conflict in Yemen. As the missile flew over Riyadh, Patriot interceptors blasted into the sky toward the rocket. Soon after, large parts of the missile fell to the ground, and officials said this was evidence of a successful shootdown. But around the same time, a large explosion was felt near the Riyadh airport, which was the intended target of the strike.
The Times and researchers, mainly from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, said the bits of missile Saudi officials collected and put on display were all from the back end of the rocket, believed to be a Scud variant, raising the question that the Patriot system may not have worked. According to the Times, the Scud was "almost certainly" designed to split into two pieces as it neared the end of its 600-mile (965-kilometer) journey from Yemen.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.