Saudi Arabia says it stopped Houthi missiles aimed at Makkah and Madina; Houthis call it 'a huge lie'

Saudi Arabia said late on Saturday that it had shot down two Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at Makkah and Madina, Islam’s two holiest cities, with debris falling on Jeddah, Taif and Rabigh. Within two hours the Houthis denied ever targeting them.

The announcement came from Saudi civil defence at the end of a day in which alerts had already sounded over the kingdom’s west. Before dawn, the Saudi-led coalition said it had destroyed a missile fired at Riyadh, and by midday “potential danger” warnings had gone out to Makkah, Jeddah, Taif and Yanbu before being lifted minutes later.

Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, rejected the Saudi account outright. He called the claim that the movement had aimed at Makkah and Madina “a great and huge lie”.

Seven operations, the Houthis say

Earlier in the evening, Saree had claimed seven operations against Saudi Arabia in 24 hours. He listed King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the Aramco facility at Yanbu, the Rabigh refinery, the East-West pipeline and airports in Najran and Dammam. Saudi Arabia did not comment on those claims.

The Houthis also said they had hit what they called Saudi positions in Aden, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, where police reported three explosions on Saturday evening.

Strikes on Sanaa

Saudi forces carried out a series of strikes on Sanaa governorate during the day, according to Houthi-run media, along with about 20 strikes on the Red Sea town of Mocha. By the evening, Houthi media put the toll at 11 dead. They said at least four people were killed when a house was hit, and six women and a child died in a strike on a residential building for cement factory workers, with three more wounded. Those figures could not be independently confirmed.

The United States updated its travel advisories for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel on Saturday, citing the threat of Houthi attacks.

Why it matters

The fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis has escalated alongside the wider US-Israeli war with Iran, now close to its eighth month. Missile alerts over Makkah and Jeddah reach cities that draw pilgrims and workers from across the Muslim world.

For India, the stakes are close to home. Flight disruptions after earlier Houthi strikes left Indian Umrah pilgrims stranded in Saudi Arabia, and India’s foreign ministry said this week that it was working with airlines and tour operators to bring the rest of them home.