Yemeni rebel group Ansar Allah (Houthis) claimed on 19 June that it had carried out a third cruise missile attack on the previous day, saying it targeted the Al-Shuqaiq power station in Saudi Arabia’s Jizan province.
A still from footage released by Ansar Allah on 16 March shows aerial footage of the Al-Shuqaiq water desalination and power plant on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast. (Ansar Allah)
The statement quoted the group’s military spokesperson as saying the attack was a “legitimate response to the aggression and unjust siege against the Yemeni people”. It added that “there are still big surprises coming” that would involve more sensitive sites in the kingdom being targeted.
Colonel Turki al-Maliki, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting Ansar Allah, confirmed the attack, saying a hostile projectile that had yet to be identified landed near the Al-Shuqaiq water desalination plant, but caused no casualties or damage. He added that it was another example of the rebels deliberately attacking civilian targets.
Ansar Allah explicitly said this was the third cruise missile attack it had carried out, the first targeting the Barakah nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi on 3 December 2017 and the second Abha International Airport in southwest Saudi Arabia on 12 June 2019. The Emirati authorities denied the first attack took place, but the attack on Abha airport was confirmed.
Ansar Allah released footage of the first attack that showed what appeared to be an Iranian ground-launched version of the Soviet Kh-55 long-range cruise missile being launched. It has not displayed the weapon used in the two recent attacks, which were carried out at far shorter ranges of around 130 km, and the damage recorded by journalists at Abha airport was not commensurate with the use of a Kh-55-type missile.
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