Saudi Arabia has said that its air defences intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone near Makkah on Tuesday evening, before it entered the restricted airspace over the Holy City.
According to the spokesperson for the ‘Coalition Forces to Support Legitimacy in Yemen‘, Major General Turki Al-Maliki, the drone was intercepted at around 6:50 p.m. local time on Tuesday. He described the incident as the second attempted Houthi attack on Makkah, referring to an earlier ballistic missile incident in 2017.
He also warned that the Saudi-led coalition would take necessary measures against further attacks. Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, Civil Defence in Saudi Arabia had issued a very brief emergency alert in Makkah, but the warning was lifted within just a few minutes.
The Houthis, however, have strongly denied targeting Makkah or any Islamic holy site. Houthi political bureau member Hazem Al-Assad called the Saudi statement “a nauseating lie that was already worn out before”, while another Houthi statement carried by Yemen’s SABA (Sana’a) news agency rejected the allegation and accused Saudi Arabia of spreading misinformation.
The incident is reported amid a sharp escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, and amid Houthi forces advancing along Yemen’s Red Sea coast toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, adding pressure on Saudi Arabia and regional shipping routes.
