Houthi Missile Attack on Saudi Eastern Province Intercepted

Saudi air defences have intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, widely known as the Houthis, toward the kingdom’s Eastern Province early on October 29, extending a run of near-daily interceptions that has now reached three widely separated regions of the kingdom in as many days. Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki announced the interception shortly after dawn, stating: “Air defences intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia.” Saudi Civil Defence had issued warnings of potential danger for both the Eastern Province and the southwestern region of Najran minutes beforehand, lifting both shortly afterwards, and no casualties or damage were reported. The launches of the past three days have reached Riyadh, Taif and the Gulf coast in turn, highlighting how the movement now holds almost the entire kingdom at risk on consecutive nights rather than in isolated salvos.

The interception followed another early on October 28, when Major General al-Maliki stated that a Houthi ballistic missile launched toward the western city of Taif had been destroyed. On October 27 the coalition reported that its air defences had brought down three ballistic missiles fired toward the Eastern Province, two aimed at Riyadh and four drones heading for the kingdom’s south, the same day the movement claimed a strike on Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia’s largest refinery. Saudi Civil Defence later stated that debris from the two missiles intercepted over Riyadh had damaged a building, a construction site and a parked vehicle in the capital. Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree claimed that one of those missiles had scored a direct hit on the headquarters of the Saudi Ministry of Defence, a claim Saudi authorities have not confirmed and which conflicts with the official account that both missiles were destroyed in flight.

The debris in Riyadh illustrates a limitation that applies even to successful engagements, since a ballistic missile destroyed above a defended city still sheds fragments of both the target and the interceptor over the area below. Saudi Arabia relies on MIM-104 Patriot batteries for its lower layer and on the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system above it, with the Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces having commissioned their first THAAD battery at a ceremony in Jeddah in July 2025 after crews trained at Fort Bliss in Texas. On January 30, 2026, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified a possible sale to Saudi Arabia of up to 730 PAC-3 MSE interceptors, estimated at around $9 billion, intended to replenish the kingdom’s PAC-3 inventory. Taif lies roughly 600 kilometres from the Houthi stronghold of Saada and Ras Tanura about 1,260 kilometres, both well inside the reach of the movement’s Iranian-derived missiles.

Fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis reignited in July after a truce that had largely held since 2022, and Riyadh has accused Tehran of encouraging the escalation, an accusation the Iranian government denies. The deadliest strike of the campaign so far hit King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on October 10, killing 13 people and injuring more than 300, and the airport reopened only on October 25 before coming under renewed attack within hours. The coalition stated on October 26 that it had destroyed two ballistic missile launchers in Sanaa, including the one used against the capital, although five more ballistic missiles were fired at the kingdom the following day.