Who Is Behind the Thwarted Attacks on Riyadh?

Among the groups who could be responsible, two are backed by Iran.

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Two explosions boomed overhead in Saudia Arabia’s capital of Riyadh in recent days, as the city came under cross-border missile and drone attacks of unknown origins. On Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition claimed to have intercepted a “hostile air target” attributed to Yemen’s Houthis; On Tuesday, videos and pictures of Saudi Arabia’s missile defense system destroying an object midair circulated on social media. 

https://twitter.com/_ahmadalhindi/status/1354014616511102976

Astute observers anticipated the collisions before they happened, having tracked flight diversions from the capital city and speculated about their purpose. Others—even those who heard the blasts firsthand—didn’t discover their source until much later. Although the U.S. Embassy released a statement informing Americans of the first thwarted strike and warning that they “stay alert in case of additional future attacks,” Saudi officials refrained from actively publicizing the attacks.

“I was home when the drone was intercepted Saturday morning. I heard a very loud double ‘Boom!’, one almost on top of the other. It was so loud I had one of those, ‘What the heck?’ moments,” Robert Godley, an American expat living in Riyadh, told The Dispatch. “I really had no idea what it was, but I am near a major city artery, so I thought it might be a car crash, though it didn’t really sound like one. I didn’t know it was a drone strike when a good friend and colleague showed me the video his brother had taken of the intercept.”

Since its 2015 intervention into Yemen on behalf of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, Saudi Arabia has been the target of a five-year torrent of rocket and drone fire at the hands of the Houthi rebels—officially called Ansar Allah—who control much of the country. But there’s reason to doubt the group’s involvement in the two most recent attacks, despite Saudi reports and the U.S. State Department’s implicit attribution in a recent statement promising to resolve the Yemen war.

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  1. Avatar photo
    DougAz

    The Middle East is where Americans and our values go to die for 2 things America has zero need for, arms sales and oil.

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  2. Avatar photo
    Narwhal

    As the article notes, Yemen does not have the capacity to produce these weapons. So, who is supplying them and how?

    Last time I checked, the Houthis don’t control any ports and the area they control is landlocked. The Saudis and the UAE control the ports and have a very effective blockade of Yemen. In addition, the Houthis have no Air Force and do not control any airports. The Saudi and UAE air forces dominate the air above Yemen and have total air superiority.

    So, if Iran is supplying the Houthis with these weapons then how are they doing so?

    Is it possible that the UAE is supplying them? They control territory in Yemen, they control ports in Yemen, they are part of the blockade of Yemen, they are on the Arabian Peninsula unlike Iran which would make smuggling by land easier to achieve.

    From the article, “A large part of Ansar Allah’s strategy is not to make military strides against the kingdom, but to make its growing economy appear as an unsound investment. “If you’re trying to promote your economy—and if you’re trying to draw business out of Dubai to make Riyadh into the new investor capital of the Gulf states—you need to be able to tell the international community that you’re a safe place,” Vatanka told The Dispatch. “And if you have missiles hitting your capital and hitting strategic assets, like refineries, that sends the opposite message.”

    There is a reason why President Washington wanted as little involvement in European conflicts and squabbles of his time as possible. It was largely practical, not ideological.

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