Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it had intercepted a missile attack on its capital and bomb-loaded drones aimed at a southern province, the latest in a series of air strikes it attributed to Yemen’s Houthis rebels.
The Saudi-led military coalition that fought in the Yemen years’ war announced that Iran’s allied rebels launched a ballistic missile towards Riyadh and several trapped drones in the direction of Jizan province. No victims or injuries were reported initially. There was no immediate comment from the Houthis.
The attack comes amid sharply rising tensions in the Middle East, a day after a mysterious explosion hit an Israeli-owned ship in the Gulf of Oman, renewing concerns about the ship’s safety in the same location that saw a series of suspicious attacks on tankers in 2019 that the U.S. Navy assigned to Iran.
State television Al-Ekhbariya posted a video of what appeared to be explosions in the air over Riyadh. Social media users also posted videos, some showing residents screaming as they watched the blast of fire, which appeared to be the Kingdom’s Patriot missile batteries intercepting the ballistic missile.
As the Yemen war progresses, attacks by Houthi missiles and drones against the kingdom become increasingly common, rarely causing damage. Riyadh was the target of sporadic missile attacks at that time, while the Saudi-led coalition faced widespread international criticism for air strikes in Yemen that killed hundreds of civilians and hit non-military targets, including schools, hospitals and wedding parties.
The United States Embassy in Riyadh issued an alert to the Americans, asking them to “be alert in case of future additional attacks”.
The Houthis have controlled the capital of Yemen and the north of the country, where the majority of the population lives, since September 2014. Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a war against them in March 2015 in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.