Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted six Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at Taif and Yanbu
Yemen Herald News 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi-led coalition said Thursday it intercepted and destroyed six ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthis toward the cities of Taif and Yanbu.
Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki announced the interceptions in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.
Al-Malki said air defences thwarted an attempt to strike the two cities. He said the coalition would deal firmly with what he described as escalations and violations by the Houthi group.
The statement did not say when the missiles were launched, or from where in Yemen. It reported no casualties and no damage.
Saudi civil defence authorities issued warnings on Thursday morning across Mecca, Jeddah, Yanbu, Tabuk and Taif, The Associated Press reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the Houthis. The group has claimed most of its recent launches at the kingdom within hours of them taking place.
Al Jazeera and The Associated Press each reported the interceptions from their own reporting, separately from the coalition statement.
Yemen Herald could not establish how close the missiles came to either city, or whether debris fell in populated areas.
Yanbu is a Red Sea port north of Jeddah and a hub for Saudi oil refining and export. Taif lies in the highlands southeast of Mecca.
Both cities sit on the kingdom’s western flank, within reach of launch sites in Houthi-held northern Yemen.
Thursday’s launches extend a campaign the Houthis have widened through September.
On Sept. 19, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had carried out two operations using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones. The first targeted sites in Riyadh and the second struck Saudi Aramco facilities at Yanbu, he said, according to Middle East Monitor.
Saudi authorities did not confirm damage at either location.
On Sept. 16, the coalition said it intercepted and destroyed a drone south of a religious site near Mecca before it entered prohibited airspace, ABC News reported. Al-Malki gave that account as well.
CNN reported on Sept. 8 that scores of people were wounded in Houthi drone and missile attacks on the kingdom. Yemen Herald has not independently verified that figure.
The Houthis have described their attacks on Saudi Arabia as retaliation for air strikes on Yemen. Earlier in September the group announced several strikes on Saudi territory over the course of a week, including one on an air base.
Saudi Arabia has not given a public account of its own air operations over Yemen during that period.
The group stepped up its attacks on the kingdom after declaring a naval blockade in July.
The coalition, formally the Coalition Forces for Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen, was assembled by Saudi Arabia in March 2015, after the Houthis seized Sanaa and pushed the internationally recognised government south.
Al-Malki has been its principal spokesman for most of that period.
The exchanges over Saudi territory run alongside a ground war in Yemen that has changed this month.
Al Jazeera reported on Sept. 22 that the Houthis had taken Yemen’s Red Sea coast, including the port of Mocha, and were fighting for the Kahboub mountains in Taiz and Lahj provinces.
Those heights overlook the Bab al-Mandab strait and Mayyun Island. Holding them would let the Houthis cut the coast from the government-held south, Al Jazeera reported.
A United Nations assistant secretary-general told the Security Council this month that the Houthi advance toward the chokepoint raises the risk of a wider conflict.
Officials put the toll from the renewed fighting at at least 674 killed and more than 158,000 displaced, Al Jazeera reported. Yemen Herald has not independently verified those counts.
Bab al-Mandab carries a large share of the cargo moving between Europe and Asia. Traffic through the strait has fallen since Houthi attacks on merchant shipping began.
The United Nations humanitarian response plan for 2026 says more than 22 million people in Yemen need assistance. It puts the number who are acutely food insecure at 18.3 million.
The plan records 5.2 million internally displaced people. It counts more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely.
The appeal seeks 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people.
The UN refugee agency said this week that nearly 100,000 more Yemenis could be displaced within three months if fighting on the west coast continues.
Yanbu holds refineries and an export terminal that give Saudi Arabia a shipping route to market on the Red Sea rather than through the Gulf.
Aid agencies have warned that a widening air campaign over the kingdom and a broader ground war in Yemen would complicate access to the west coast.
The Houthis have held Sanaa since 2014. The internationally recognised government operates from Aden.
The coalition has not said what type of missiles were used on Thursday, or whether the six were fired in a single salvo.
Mocha, on the Red Sea coast, had been held by anti-Houthi forces since 2017 and served as a base for operations toward the strait.
Saree, who announces Houthi military operations in recorded television statements, did not comment publicly on Thursday.
The Houthis declared the naval blockade in July and have since presented their campaign against Saudi Arabia and shipping as a single effort.
The coalition did not say whether Thursday’s interceptions involved Patriot batteries or other systems.
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