Amid Houthi Missile and Drone Attacks

The Gulf sheikdom has spent years facing a stream of missile and drone attacks carried out by Yemen’s Houthi militia, with the militants beginning the strikes in the aftermath of the Saudi-led coalition’s incursion into the southern Gulf state in March 2015 to try to restore its ousted government.

The United States has removed a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system and multiple Patriot missile batteries from Saudi Arabia, The Associated Press reports, citing an analysis of satellite photos by a private earth imaging company.

According to the news agency, satellite snaps by Planet Labs show that the air and missile defence systems have been removed from a runway at the Prince Sultan Air Base, a military facility situated about 115 km outside Riyadh.