Saudi Arabia Thwarts Houthi Missile Attack on Riyadh; Civilian Homes Damaged by Debris

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Residential homes sustained damage on Tuesday from falling shrapnel following the interception of two cruise missiles over the capital, according to the Saudi Press Agency via Reuters. The Saudi-led coalition announced on Wednesday that it had successfully intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi group towards Riyadh. This incident occurs days after two separate strikes hit Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, resulting in 14 fatalities and hundreds of injuries.

Coalition spokesman Major-General Turki al-Maliki reported the thwarted attack on X. The General Directorate of Saudi Civil Defence issued two alerts via its national early warning platform, one for the Al-Kharj governorate and another for the capital, later confirming that the immediate danger had passed.

The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, claimed responsibility for attacks targeting facilities of Saudi Arabia’s national oil company Aramco in Dhahran, an Aramco refinery in Riyadh, and the capital’s King Khalid International Airport. The Saudi Ministry of Energy confirmed that the administrative building of Aramco in Dhahran was struck overnight.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Doha, Qatar, noted that recent events have challenged the notion that the conflict could be contained within Yemen, with several sites in Saudi Arabia being targeted in the past ten days. The weekend attacks on King Khalid International Airport alone resulted in 14 deaths and over 300 wounded. Houthi attacks have also been reported on other airports, including Abha International Airport, which caused two fatalities, and on Aramco facilities.

Meanwhile, Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have initiated a counteroffensive in Yemen, aiming to reclaim coastal territory near the vital Bab al-Mandeb strait from the Houthis. Fighting between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni forces escalated significantly last month, breaking a United Nations-brokered ceasefire that had been largely observed since 2022. The Houthis have held control over Yemen’s most populous regions, including the capital Sanaa, since their seizure of the city in 2014, forcing the internationally recognized government to relocate to southern Yemen.

The Muslim World League on Wednesday condemned the ongoing Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, characterizing them as deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian sites. Secretary-general Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa stated that the nature of these attacks confirms “the criminal approach of this terrorist militia in deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.”

Separately, Yemen’s Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah television reported that four air strikes hit the Harib district in the Marib governorate. The impact of these strikes was not immediately clear. Nawaf Obaid, a security and intelligence analyst and senior research fellow at King’s College London, commented to Al Jazeera that while air strikes are increasing, the “actual ground war hasn’t really begun” for the Saudi-led coalition. Obaid outlined potential phases for such an operation, beginning with targeting the Houthis’ operational power and energy sources, followed by addressing their systematic control in the region, and finally, reclaiming territories gained by the Houthis. He emphasized that these phases would involve specialized troops, particularly for mountain warfare, given the challenging terrain the Houthis are utilizing.