RIYADH/SANAA – The Saudi-led coalition said on Tuesday it had intercepted three drones targeting Saudi territory, one of them over the western Mecca region, while Yemen's Houthi group said it had launched drone and ballistic missile attacks on an airport and an airbase in southwestern Saudi Arabia.
Coalition spokesman Turki Al-Maliki said on social media platform X that its forces had intercepted and destroyed a drone over the Mecca region, without providing further details.
He later said that two drones had also been intercepted and destroyed, one in the Eastern Province and the other heading toward the southern region.
Meanwhile, in a statement on social media platform X, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group launched two attacks in Saudi Arabia's southwestern Asir region, targeting Abha International Airport with a drone and King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait with a ballistic missile. He claimed the drone strike disrupted air traffic at the airport and that the missile directly hit the airbase.
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Inside Yemen, Sarea said, Houthi forces fired several ballistic missiles at government forces in the Ras al-Arah and Al-Mudarabah areas of the southern province of Lahj, near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, claiming the strikes caused dozens of casualties.
In a separate attack, Sarea said, several ballistic missiles targeted forces east of Al-Jawf, a northern province bordering Saudi Arabia. He claimed the strikes killed or wounded a large number of personnel and destroyed several military vehicles.
The casualty and damage claims from the attacks could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, a Houthi military source, quoted by the Sanaa-based, Houthi-run version of the Saba news agency, cautioned investors in Saudi oil giant Aramco about what he described as potential financial and security risks.
The source warned that Aramco's facilities remained "within range" of Houthi forces.
The latest developments come amid a renewed escalation in Yemen's long-running conflict, with intensified ground fighting and airstrikes inside the country accompanied by Houthi missile and drone attacks on targets in Saudi Arabia.
Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government.
Casualties reported as fighting escalates across Yemen's southern fronts
Fighting and strikes intensified along a volatile front stretching toward the southern Yemeni port city of Aden on Tuesday, with casualties reported across the southern Lahj and southwestern Taiz provinces, according to military and Houthi media sources.
A military official with Yemen's government forces told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that two Houthi ballistic missiles struck a public market in the government-controlled Lahj on Tuesday, killing one person and wounding 10 others.
Meanwhile, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV said an airstrike hit a plastic footwear factory located north of Taiz city on Tuesday, killing three people and wounding eight others. The channel attributed the strike to Saudi warplanes and said civil defense teams were battling a fire at the site.
Also on Tuesday, al-Masirah reported two were killed, including a woman, and five others injured in an airstrike on Ash Shamayatayn district in southern Taiz.
The attacks came as fighting intensified along the Taiz-Lahj front, where Houthi forces have recently advanced through the mountainous Al-Maqatirah district in Taiz toward Tur al-Bahah, a government-held district on routes leading toward Aden.
Government forces, supported by the Saudi-led coalition, have been seeking to halt the Houthi advances as the conflict sharply escalates on multiple fronts, with intensified ground battles and airstrikes inside Yemen accompanied by Houthi missile and drone attacks on government-held areas and targets inside Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the Houthi group on Tuesday denied carrying out any attacks against Saudi Arabia during the day, rejecting allegations that it had targeted the holy city of Mecca amid heightened cross-border tensions.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement on social media platform X that the group's forces "did not carry out any operation toward Saudi territory today."
Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government.
