This was the primary time an alert was sounded in Riyadh since an escalation between the Houthis in Yemen and the Saudis.
Printed On 19 Sep 2026
Saudi-led coalition forces preventing Yemen’s Houthis have mentioned that the Iran-backed group fired a ballistic missile at Riyadh at daybreak earlier than it was intercepted and destroyed.
“The Houthis additionally tried to focus on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Bisha, Taif, Farasan and Yanbu,” coalition forces spokesman Main-Common Turki al-Maliki wrote on X on Saturday, including that the assaults have been thwarted by the Gulf monarchy’s air defences.
Advisable Tales
record of 4 objectsfinish of record
Saudi Arabia warned of a “hostile aerial menace” and issued a string of emergency alerts throughout the dominion in a single day on Friday.
On Saturday, at the least one explosion was heard in Riyadh, with residents close to the airport saying they noticed a big plume of black smoke later within the morning. Saudi authorities reported no casualties or harm.
It was the primary air raid alert sounded in Riyadh since an escalation in fighting with the Houthis in Yemen started in July.
The Saudi spokesman mentioned that the Houthis are escalating their makes an attempt to focus on civilians and civilian infrastructure within the capital. He additionally affirmed the coalition command’s proper to take “applicable” motion to discourage the Houthis, in accordance with worldwide humanitarian legislation.
Earlier on Saturday, Houthi fighters in Yemen mentioned they attacked “delicate” websites in Riyadh in addition to an Aramco oil facility within the western coastal metropolis of Yanbu, in keeping with an announcement shared by Houthi army spokesman Yahya Saree.
Saree mentioned the Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia with cruise and ballistic missiles in addition to drones.
“You could possibly see that the Houthis are figuring out the timelines and the degrees of the escalation,” Yasmeen al-Eryani, govt director for information manufacturing on the Sana’a Middle suppose tank, instructed Al Jazeera. “So, relying on the present state of affairs, plainly the Houthis are those in management,” she added.
In the meantime, on the bottom in Yemen, the armed forces of the Saudi-backed internationally recognised authorities mentioned their fighters thwarted a Houthi infiltration try within the al-Fuliahan sector in southern Marib on Saturday, killing 12 Houthi fighters and injuring others.
The military additionally mentioned 13 Yemeni troopers have been killed in two days of clashes with Houthi forces within the southwestern provinces of Taiz and Lahj.
Renewed clashes are happening in Yemen’s Marib, Taiz, Lahj, al-Jawf and al-Bayda as a part of a army escalation that started in early July – probably the most intense because the relative calm following an April 2022 truce.
Al-Eryani instructed Al Jazeera that army choices towards the Houthis are at present restricted as a result of a lot of the preventing is happening in mountainous terrain that’s troublesome for opposing forces to entry and maintain.
For now, she mentioned, containing the group could also be a extra lifelike choice than defeating it militarily. “With out controlling the peaks which can be parallel to the coast, you will be unable to regulate the coast,” mentioned al-Eryani.
