Houthi Attack on Saudi Arabia: Drone Downed Over Mecca

The Saudi-led coalition has said that its air defences intercepted and destroyed a drone launched by Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, widely known as the Houthis, over the Mecca region early on October 30, hours after two ballistic missiles fired toward Riyadh were intercepted on the evening of October 29. Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki announced the interception in a post on X, stating: “A drone launched by the terrorist Houthi militia has been intercepted and destroyed in the Makkah region.” The coalition did not say what the drone was aimed at or whether it caused damage, and the movement had not commented by the morning. It is the second time in six weeks that Saudi Arabia has reported a Houthi drone over the province of Islam’s holiest city, where the movement’s declared targets have otherwise been airports, refineries and military sites.

The Riyadh engagement followed air threat warnings to Riyadh, Al-Kharj and Najran, with Major General al-Maliki stating that air defences had “intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the terrorist Houthi militia towards Riyadh.” Saudi Civil Defence reported that falling shrapnel had caused minor injuries to one person in the capital and damaged a house and a vehicle, on a day that had begun with another ballistic missile destroyed over the Eastern Province. The movement’s military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed six operations against what he called “vital commercial and military infrastructure”, naming the Ras Tanura and Rabigh refineries, the Aramco facility at Abqaiq, the airports of Riyadh and Dammam and a military headquarters in Najran. No Saudi authority or Aramco has confirmed any of those strikes, leaving the two missiles fired toward Riyadh as the only part of the claim matched by an official Saudi statement.

The coalition reported the previous Mecca incident on September 16, stating that a drone had been shot down south of the city on the evening of September 15, before it could enter restricted airspace. Major General al-Maliki called the security of Mecca a “red line” while describing it as the second attempt on the city after a ballistic missile launched toward it on July 27, 2017. Ansarullah rejected that account as “fabrications and lies”, insisting it strikes military and oil facilities away from holy sites, and its supporters rallied in Sanaa on September 18 against the accusation. The province also contains Jeddah, Taif and the Rabigh refinery that Saree named on October 29, while the movement’s ballistic missiles already reach almost all of Saudi Arabia, so a drone downed over the province need not have been aimed at the holy city at all.

The exchanges continue a war that reignited in July after a truce that had largely held since 2022, and whose deadliest strike so far hit King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on October 10, killing 13 people and injuring more than 300. They also came only days after Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman attended talks in Tehran on October 26 with Iranian, Pakistani and Turkish officials, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry has stressed “the importance of opening channels of negotiation to prevent a return to military escalation.” Ras Tanura appeared on Saree’s list for the second time in three days, the movement having first claimed a ballistic missile strike on the refinery on October 27, a claim Riyadh has neither confirmed nor publicly denied.