Yemen’s Missile Power: Ability to Hit Deep Inside Saudi Arabia (+Video)

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Over 12,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.

Once it was unavailable but it is now very close and accessible for Yemenis to hit targets in a range of 1400km.

Tasnim has conducted interviews with a number of Yemeni citizens about the issue. One of them said, a lot of progress were made in improving missile program.

"This is a great sign and reason that shows the government is attaching great importance to defending its people. What proves the achievement is that the missiles can now reach Saudi Yanbu region."

The missile is an optimized version of a Korean missile and is now called SH-2 after the optimization. The missile has hit its target in the Yanbu province with high precision after flying over 1400 kilometers.

Over two years after the start of Saudi-led coalition aggression against Yemen, Yemenis have entered a phase to reach Riyadh and beyond Riyadh. That was a phase not considered in the Saudi-led coalition’s equations.

Another Yemeni citizen pointed to Saudi warplanes' attacks on Sana’a and Taiz  after the Yemeni operation, and said, "In fact, they showed a kind of reaction to the achievements made by Yemenis. At the starting point, they had assumed that our missiles cannot reach their provinces."

Developments in the battlefield in various fronts inside and outside Yemen showed that the forces loyal to the coalition have suffered many losses. What is now certain about the latest developments is that whenever army forces achieve a success and attack targets deep inside Saudi Arabia’s soil, the anti-Yemen coalition fighters increase their attacks against the defenseless Yemeni civilians.