Yemeni Army Fires Ballistic Missile at Saudi-Led Forces

The Yemeni forces fired the missile dubbed “Qaher-1” at a gathering of the Saudi-led forces in Bir al-Maraziq in Jawf Province in northwestern Yemen, the Arabic-language Al-Ahed news website reported.

There were no immediate reports of possible casualties and the extent of damage, the report added.

This is while, Saudi warplanes continued airstrikes on various districts of Yemen on Thursday. Two Yemenis lost their lives in the strikes on the southwestern province of Taiz and three were killed in the northern province of Sa’ada.

Qaher-1, which has a range of 500 kilometers, was first fired by the Yemeni Army at the Khaled bin Abdulaziz military base in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern city of Khamis Mushait, located 884 kilometers (549 miles) southwest of the capital, Riyadh.

Yemeni Ansarullah movement’s technicians have produced the new surface-to-surface ballistic missile after making major alterations to the Russian-made S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missile system.

The military innovation came after Ansarullah forces realized that the S-75 missiles cannot be efficiently utilized for targeting the advanced military warplanes belonging to a Saudi-led military coalition, which have been pounding Yemen for about a year.

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

More than 8000 Yemenis, including many women and children, have died in the Saudi-led aggression so far.