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Saudi-led coalition forces said their air defences intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile fired at Riyadh at dawn on Saturday, September 19, according to a coalition statement. It was the first air raid alert sounded in the Saudi capital since fighting with the Iran-backed group escalated in July.
The kingdom had warned of a hostile aerial threat and pushed emergency alerts to phones across the country overnight on Friday. Residents in Riyadh heard at least one explosion on Saturday morning. People living near King Khalid International Airport later saw a large plume of black smoke rising from the area. Saudi authorities reported no casualties and no damage.
Coalition spokesman Major-General Turki al-Maliki said on X that the Houthis also tried to hit civilians and civilian infrastructure in Yanbu, Taif and Farasan. He said those attempts were thwarted by Saudi air defences. Yanbu sits on the Red Sea coast and is the end point of a key Saudi oil pipeline, which makes it a recurring target in this campaign.
The Houthis claimed considerably more. Military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had struck sites it described as sensitive in Riyadh, along with facilities belonging to the Saudi oil company Aramco in Yanbu. He said the attack used cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones, and caused massive fires. The group offered no evidence for those claims. Aramco did not respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press.
Saturday's exchange fits a pattern that has been building since early July, when renewed fighting opened the most intense phase of the Yemen conflict since the truce of April 2022. Ground clashes have returned to Marib, Taiz, Lahj, al-Jawf and al-Bayda. Forces loyal to Yemen's internationally recognised government said they killed 12 Houthi fighters while repelling an infiltration attempt in southern Marib on Saturday. They also said 13 of their own soldiers died in two days of fighting in Taiz and Lahj.
Outside powers are edging closer to the conflict. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told broadcaster NTV that Turkey could meet Saudi military needs under a defense pact signed recently between the two countries and Pakistan. "We have an alliance agreement in place and we stand by our word," he said.
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