Saudi-led coalition says it downed cruise missile over Madinah region

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said on Thursday that it had intercepted and destroyed a cruise missile over the Madinah region in western Saudi Arabia. The Houthis, the group the kingdom is fighting, immediately denied carrying out any attack on the area and called the claim a lie.

Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki announced the interception in a short statement on X. It did not say who fired the missile or what it was aimed at, and it gave no details of casualties or damage, according to a report carried by The Express Tribune that drew on Anadolu.

Houthis reject the claim

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on X that Yemen’s armed forces had not carried out “any operation today targeting Saudi territory”. He described the Saudi claim of an attack on Madinah as “a shameless and brazen lie”. The two accounts could not be reconciled, and neither side offered evidence.

The Madinah power station

Madinah, home of the Prophet’s Mosque, has been named in earlier coalition accusations. The coalition says the Houthis carried out a drone attack on the Taibah electricity distribution station in the city on September 29. According to al-Maliki, the strike knocked out a transformer but did not disrupt the electricity grid. The facility supplies power to the Prophet’s Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites.

The latest statement came amid intensified Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, including strikes on airports and energy facilities. Read our reports on the Houthi claim of a strike on a Riyadh refinery after the Madina attack and on the strike on Riyadh airport that killed 12.

Other incidents this week

• Eastern Province: early on Thursday the coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed a drone over Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, again without saying where it came from. Hours earlier the Houthis had claimed to have hit King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile, with no details of casualties or damage. The coalition said on Wednesday it had destroyed a ballistic missile fired at Riyadh after warning alerts sounded in the capital and in nearby Al-Kharj.
• Fighter jet claim: late on Wednesday, Saree said a surface-to-air missile had hit a Saudi Typhoon fighter jet over Yemen’s northern province of Saada, saying it had taken off from an air base in Taif. Saudi authorities did not immediately comment.
• Airport attacks: between October 5 and 11, 10 attacks targeted five Saudi airports, killing 20 people and injuring hundreds, according to an Anadolu tally based on official statements. King Khalid International Airport was hit five times, accounting for 18 of the deaths.

Fighting in Taiz

On the ground in Yemen, the army said on Thursday that it repelled a Houthi attack on Jabal Han, a strategic mountain west of Taiz city. Colonel Abdul Basit al-Bahr, deputy head of the Moral Guidance Department of the Taiz Military Axis, said it came “after hours of the fiercest clashes and most intense fighting”. He gave no figures for casualties or losses.

Jabal Han overlooks the Al-Dhabab road, the only vital route linking Taiz with Lahj governorate and, farther south, the interim capital Aden. Al-Jumhuriya Channel separately reported airstrikes that destroyed Houthi communications towers in the Bani Bakkari area of Jabal Habashi district in Taiz. Yemeni human rights and humanitarian groups accuse the Houthis of besieging Taiz city since 2015 and blocking aid convoys, which the group denies.

Background

Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government against the Houthis since 2015. The group has controlled the capital Sanaa and several provinces since 2014. The present escalation began in July, after the collapse of a truce reached in 2022.

Why it matters

Any attack near Madinah carries particular weight for Muslims, which is why the coalition’s claim and the Houthi denial matter beyond the military dispute. Pakistan has condemned the attacks on the kingdom, and the war now touches pilgrimage, aviation and sport in Saudi Arabia. Read our report on how the strikes are making Umrah pilgrims anxious.

This article draws on reporting by The Express Tribune and Anadolu.