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 stated 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-Normal Turki al-Maliki wrote on X on Saturday, including that the assaults had been thwarted by the Gulf monarchy’s air defences.
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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 very 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 injury.
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 stated 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 “acceptable” motion to discourage the Houthis, in accordance with worldwide humanitarian regulation.
Earlier on Saturday, Houthi fighters in Yemen stated they attacked “delicate” websites in Riyadh in addition to an Aramco oil facility within the western coastal metropolis of Yanbu, in response to an announcement shared by Houthi army spokesman Yahya Saree.
Saree stated the Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia with cruise and ballistic missiles in addition to drones.
“You may see that the Houthis are figuring out the timelines and the degrees of the escalation,” Yasmeen al-Eryani, government director for data manufacturing on the Sana’a Middle suppose tank, informed Al Jazeera. “So, relying on the present scenario, evidently 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 stated 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 stated 13 Yemeni troopers had been killed in two days of clashes with Houthi forces within the southwestern provinces of Taiz and Lahj.
Renewed clashes are going down in Yemen’s Marib, Taiz, Lahj, al-Jawf and al-Bayda as a part of a army escalation that started in early July – essentially the most intense because the relative calm following an April 2022 truce.
Al-Eryani informed Al Jazeera that army choices towards the Houthis are at the moment restricted as a result of a lot of the preventing is going down in mountainous terrain that’s troublesome for opposing forces to entry and maintain.
For now, she stated, containing the group could also be a extra reasonable possibility than defeating it militarily. “With out controlling the peaks which can be parallel to the coast, you won’t be able to regulate the coast,” stated al-Eryani.
