Saudi’s claim Houthi’s fired a Missile at Holy City of Mecca, Google Map Says Otherwise.

Houthi’s fired a Burkan-1 Scud missile at the Jeddah International Airport on October 29^th 2016. The missile was intercepted by Saudi Military forces 10 KM away from Jeddah Airport and have shot it down without any human loss.

Saudi Government and Arab Coalition have claimed that, the missile was aimed at the Holy City of Mecca. However, the Google map proves that, the missile wasn’t aimed at Mecca and if it was, it wouldn’t be travelling towards Jeddah Airport. It appears that, for the purpose of gaining public support against war in Yemen, Saudi Government has claimed that, it shot the missile 65 kilometres away from Mecca instead of saying 10 KM away from Jeddah Airport. Geographically, the city of Mecca is nearer to Yemen border than Jeddah Airport.

Details about the Missile fired by Houthis.

• Name of the Missile: Burkan – 1 (Volcano-1)
• Type: SCUD
• Range: 800 Kilometres
• Size: 12.5 meters longs
• Payload: Half a tonne

Arab Coalition has alleged that the missiles have been supplied to Houthis by Iran. Iran has neither confirmed nor denied about it. However, Iran has been publicly supportive of Houthis, which is a Shia group. Also, Iran has strongly refuted the claims of Saudi Arabia that the missile was aimed at Holy City of Mecca.

“The claim about the Yemenis’ missile attack against the holy Mecca is basically ridiculous. The Yemeni people are more religiously devout as well as dedicated and committed to the holy Islamic sites than the Wahhabis and rulers who are dependent on the US and the Israeli regime instead of their own nations and Muslim states” said Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi.

It raises disturbing questions about the seriousness of Saudi Government, who currently are the custodians of the Holy Mosques.

Is Saudi Arabian Government prepared to safeguard the Holy Mosques?

This is not the first time Houthi Rebels have fired Burkan-1 missiles within Saudi Arabia. On October 10^th 2016, from the northern part of Sa’dah province launched a Scud missile on King Fahd Air Base near City of Taif. Taif is almost 500 Kilometres from the Saudi-Yemen Border.  This attack should have alerted the Saudi Government on the capabilities of Houthis and should have prepared themselves for the potential attack deep inside.

The fact that, the missile travelled past city of Mecca and almost reached the Jeddah Airport raises serious questions about the military preparedness of Saudi Arabian Government, especially its capability to protect the Holy Mosques.

If Saudi Arabian Government is unable to protect the Holy Mosques, then the Muslim Countries across the world should pressurize the Saudi Arabian government to make the cities of Mecca and Medina as independent territories such as Vatican City. A treaty can be signed by Muslim Countries across the world to jointly protect the Holy Cities from any foreign invasion. Technically, in a scenario where Holy Cities are invaded by any non-Muslim entity, Jihad on Muslims would become obligations, so such a treaty is already in-place in the Islam itself to protect the cities from the invasion from non-Muslim entities.

Was the Missile intentionally allowed to travel 800 KM within Saudi Territory?

Another serious allegation that has being levelled against Saudi Arabia is purposefully allowing the missile to get close to the Holy City of Mecca to gain public support. Recently, Coalition led by Saudi Arabian Government had targeted a funeral in Yemen that killed over 140 people, who were there to mourn.  There was serious international condemnation for the attack and Arab Coalition had accepted it as a mistake.

Since the attack, Arab Coalition is desperately trying to gain the confidence of public back to oust the Houthi Rebels in Yemen.