Yemenis Fire Scud Missile 520 km to hit Saudi airbase near Mecca, US Navy destroyers also targeted

Last Saturday the Saudi Arabian airforce bombed a funeral in Yemen and killed over 200 mourners at the funeral. Another 500 or more were injured, some of them seriously.

In retaliation the Yemenis fired a long range Scud missile to hit a Saudi airbase located at Taif inside Saudi Arabia. Taif is located within the district of Mecca, 108 km away from Mecca city.  Please see map:

 Here is some news :

• Saudi tv aired clip of projectile that landed in Taif in ballistic missile attack
• video shows explosion, followed by images of emergency vehicles. 
• Taif is home to Saudi Arabia's King Fahad Air Base
• which hosts U.S. military personnel 
• Al-Masirah TV identified missile as Scud missile. 
• It said the Volcano-1 missile targeted the air base
• Taif attack, missile struck more than 520 kilometers (325 miles) 
• Taif is just outside of Mecca
• home to cube-shaped Kaaba that all of world's Muslims pray toward.

Here is some video :

Here is the url for the video :    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eg5gmFyN7E&sns=em

The Yemenis struck their target (King Fahad Air Base) from a distance of 520 km.

This is the deepest missile strike into Saudi Arabia.

The Yemenis also fired missiles at two US Navy destroyers at the Bab el Mandeb straits.  

• Missiles Fired from Rebel-held Yemen Land near US Destroyer
  
  DUBAI -- Two missiles fired from rebel-held territory in Yemen landed near an American destroyer passing by in the Red Sea, the U.S. Navy said on Monday, the second-such launch targeting ships in the crucial international waterway in recent days.

The question is why were the US Navy destroyers sailing so close to the Yemeni shore?

Was it a deliberate attempt to provoke an attack to justify the US getting directly involved in the Yemen conflict which the Saudis started but they are losing?

This brings to mind the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 off the coast of Vietnam, involving the USS Maddox. 

That was a fake incident provoked by the US Navy which was used as an excuse to start the Vietnam War for the US:

• Gulf of Tonkin incident aka USS Maddox incident, involved two separate confrontations involving North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. 
• Aug 2, 1964, destroyer USS Maddox, pursued by three North Vietnamese boats 
• outcome was passage by Congress of Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granted President Johnson authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered jeopardized by "communist aggression".
• controversial, widespread claims that either one or both incidents were false
• 2003 documentary "The Fog of War" former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara admitted USS Maddox attack happened with no Defense Department response, but the August 4 Gulf of Tonkin attack never happened.

The Saudi government has been telling their people that the Yemenis have NOT crossed the border into Saudi Arabia and that they are defeating Yemen. This first Scud missile strike 520 km into Saudi Arabia and hitting Taif  has just burst all the hot air in their propaganda.

More to come.