Mecca Missile Attack Today: Debris 21 km From Grand Mosque

Saudi air defences have intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, widely known as the Houthis, over the Makkah region on November 11, with fragments falling in the village of Sabuhah, about 35 kilometres northeast of the Grand Mosque, and in Wadi al-Maghmas, about 21 kilometres east of it. The Saudi Civil Defence announced the debris sites early on November 12, and no casualties were reported. Neither it nor the Saudi-led coalition disclosed where the missiles were launched from, which systems intercepted them or what they had been aimed at. The incident is the second in under three weeks in which ballistic missile debris has come down within a short drive of Islam’s holiest site. The Civil Defence stated: “This hostile targeting of civilian objects constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”

The interceptions came on one of the busiest days of the campaign, with coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki having also reported three cruise missiles destroyed on their way to the Riyadh region and two drones downed over the Makkah region and the south. Civil Defence issued danger alerts for Taif, Yanbu and Khamis Mushait later the same day before announcing that the threat had passed. Ansarullah’s military spokesman Yahya Saree denied that the movement had sent any drone towards Mecca, calling the Saudi account a lie and stating that its operations target oil facilities and military bases. He claimed instead that three cruise missiles had been fired at King Khalid International Airport and that a drone had struck Pumping Station No. 11 near Yanbu, following earlier claimed strikes on pumping stations that Saudi Arabia has likewise not confirmed.

The debris follows a closely comparable incident on October 24, when Civil Defence said fragments of two intercepted ballistic missiles fell at four sites in the Makkah region, Jeddah, Taif and Rabigh, while the coalition said the missiles had been fired at Taif and Yanbu. The movement denied targeting Mecca on that occasion as well, with the coalition having since reported a drone destroyed over the Makkah region on October 30. Mecca lies roughly 650 kilometres northwest of Saada, the movement’s northern stronghold, considerably closer than the 915 kilometres its missiles have repeatedly covered to reach Riyadh. The scatter of debris between Jeddah, Taif and the outskirts of the city indicates that interceptions in the west are being made late in the missiles’ flight rather than near the Yemeni border.

The missile fire has continued as fighting inside Yemen intensifies, with Yemeni army spokesman Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili stating that government forces had killed or wounded at least 138 Houthi fighters in al-Jawf, Marib, al-Bayda and Taiz, figures that could not be independently verified. The deadliest single attack on Saudi soil since hostilities resumed remains the October 10 strike on King Khalid International Airport, which killed 13 people and wounded more than 300. Saudi authorities have not said which systems defend the Makkah region, although the kingdom’s ground-based missile defence network has long been built around MIM-104 Patriot batteries.