Saudi air defences intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi movement towards Riyadh in the early hours of Friday, the Saudi-led coalition announced, marking the latest escalation in cross-border attacks on the kingdom.
Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said the missile had been successfully intercepted and destroyed before it could threaten the capital. The announcement gave no details of where debris from the interception fell.
Separately, the coalition said late on Thursday night that it had neutralised another Houthi ballistic missile aimed at the Najran region in southern Saudi Arabia.
The interceptions follow two days of Houthi drone strikes on Saudi targets, including the attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam and the strike near Aramco’s Shaybah oil field earlier this week, in which a Filipino and a Nepali worker were killed and two others, including a Pakistani, were injured. (Related: Houthi Strikes Kill 3 in Saudi Arabia, Pakistani Injured; Houthi drones intercepted over Riyadh, Madinah: coalition)
The Houthi attacks come against the backdrop of the wider US-Iran war, with Washington maintaining a naval blockade of Iran and Tehran warning of retaliation against American allies in the region.
Pakistan, which signed a mutual defence pact with Saudi Arabia earlier this year, has been watching the escalation closely, with officials in Islamabad describing the kingdom’s security as a red line.
