Riyadh Missile Attack Today: 3 Houthi Missiles Intercepted

Saudi air defences have intercepted a ballistic missile and a cruise missile fired at Riyadh in the early hours of November 10, and destroyed a second ballistic missile launched towards the south of the kingdom, in the second attack on the capital in three days. Major General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, announced the interceptions on his X account on Tuesday morning and attributed all three launches to Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, widely known as the Houthis. Saudi Civil Defence had sent text alerts instructing Riyadh residents to take shelter from an aerial threat, before stating that the danger had passed, with no casualties reported. The salvo is significant in pairing ballistic and cruise missiles against a capital more than 1,000 kilometres from Sanaa, following four interceptions over the city only two nights earlier.

Civil Defence also issued danger warnings for the southern city of Abha and the neighbouring governorate of Khamis Mushait, which were lifted shortly afterwards, consistent with the coalition’s account of a third missile downed over the south. The launches follow a night on November 8 when four missiles were intercepted over Riyadh and falling debris damaged the Aramco Tower in the King Abdullah Financial District. On November 9 the Saudi Energy Ministry reported that the East-West pipeline was attacked in the Medina region, causing a limited fire that was extinguished, with pipeline operations unaffected. The coalition stated the same day that it had destroyed a missile component assembly factory, a solid propellant mixing plant and an electronics facility in Ansarullah-held territory. The movement had not commented on the Tuesday launches by the morning.

The coalition did not say which systems made the interceptions, although the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces have long operated the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system. Saudi Arabia commissioned its first Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery in Jeddah on July 2, 2025, after its crews completed training at Fort Bliss in Texas. The battery was delivered under a sale the U.S. approved in October 2017 for 44 launchers and 360 interceptors, worth around $15 billion. The coalition had already reported on November 5 that it intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards the Medina region, minutes after a danger alert was issued for the port of Yanbu.

Ansarullah has stepped up strikes on Saudi airports, ports and oil facilities in recent weeks during the wider U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, amid intensified fighting between the movement and Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which Riyadh backs. The East-West pipeline has become particularly valuable to Saudi Arabia since Iran restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, as it carries crude across the kingdom to Yanbu on the Red Sea for export. In announcing its strikes on November 9, the coalition stated that it would continue its efforts to dismantle what it described as the ballistic missile network of the Houthi terrorist militia.