Saudi Arabia says its air defences have intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone south of the holy city of Mecca, in a dramatic escalation of tensions between Riyadh and the Iran-aligned group fighting in Yemen.
The Saudi-led coalition says the drone was brought down on Tuesday evening before it could enter Mecca’s restricted airspace. Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki described the incident as the second alleged Houthi attempt to target the holy city, following a ballistic missile launch in 2017.
He warned that the security of Mecca, home to Islam’s holiest sites and a focal point of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, remains a “red line.”
The reported incident has drawn condemnation from Muslim-majority countries and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which described any attack targeting Mecca or the wider holy sites as unacceptable.
But the Houthis have rejected the Saudi account, denying that they targeted Mecca or any Islamic holy site. Their military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said Houthi operations are directed at Saudi military positions and oil facilities, which he said are far from the sacred sites.
Saree also claimed that Houthi forces had launched missiles and drones at Saudi targets in response to more than 450 Saudi airstrikes across Yemen in the past week.
He further claimed that a Saudi F-15 fighter jet was shot down over Marib province, although that claim has not been independently verified.
The competing claims come amid a renewed escalation in the long-running Yemen conflict, with attacks and counter-attacks raising fresh concerns over regional security and the potential impact on one of Islam’s most sacred cities.
