Coalition says it downed two missiles over Riyadh as Saudi and Houthi accounts diverge
Adel Haddad 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi-led coalition air defences destroyed two Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at Riyadh early Sunday, the coalition spokesman said, as the two sides’ accounts of the week’s attacks diverged.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, the coalition spokesman, said in a post on X that the missiles were intercepted and destroyed before they reached the Saudi capital.
Saudi Arabia’s civil defence directorate issued an emergency alert in Riyadh and lifted it the same night, Middle East Eye reported.
Al-Maliki said on Saturday that two suspected Houthi drones had been intercepted over the Riyadh and southern regions, according to Al Jazeera.
That count is not agreed. Long War Journal, a publication of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the coalition announced the interception of a single drone on Nov. 14.
Yemen Herald found no coalition statement reconciling the two figures.
Middle East Eye logged three separate coalition interception announcements over the Eastern Region within about three hours early Sunday.
The Houthis have not answered the Saturday and Sunday interception claims directly. Their military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said instead that the group shot down a Saudi armed reconnaissance aircraft over al-Jawf.
Saree called it the fifth aircraft downed since the escalation began. The coalition has not confirmed any such loss.
The two accounts diverged further two days earlier. Saree said on Nov. 13 that the Houthis struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with one drone, and pumping station No. 3 on the East-West pipeline east of the capital with two more.
He described both operations as successful. Middle East Eye reported that Saudi Arabia did not immediately confirm the claims, and no Saudi denial has been published since.
The pipeline carries crude from the kingdom’s eastern fields to Yanbu on the Red Sea. Riyadh has rerouted about 4 million barrels a day through it, roughly 4 percent of global supply, Al Jazeera reported on Nov. 12.
An attack on the same line in Medina province on Nov. 9 started a fire that the Saudi energy ministry said was put out without casualties or any interruption to flows.
Saree also claimed ballistic missile attacks on Saudi-backed troop positions in Lahij, Jizan and al-Jawf, and said they caused casualties. He gave no figure, and no independent account of those casualties has been published.
He said a weapons depot at Ras Abbas camp in Aden was hit and set alight.
Middle East Eye reported that Saudi civil defence had lifted an alert over Jazan hours before those claims. The province holds a refinery able to process 400,000 barrels a day.
Claim and counter-claim have run through the week. On Nov. 11 the Saudi side reported intercepting a drone over Mecca, three cruise missiles aimed at Riyadh, a drone over the south and two ballistic missiles aimed at the west, Long War Journal said.
Saree denied that any drone had been intercepted over the region and said three cruise missiles hit King Khalid airport.
On Nov. 12 the coalition said it had intercepted two drones over Riyadh and two over the Eastern Province. Saree called the Saudi assertion that the Houthis had targeted the Mecca region a “grave falsehood,” Al Jazeera reported.
On Nov. 7 Saree claimed attacks on an Aramco facility in Riyadh, on the airport, on three other energy targets and on a National Guard camp in Najran, according to Long War Journal.
Debris has reached a Saudi building once this month. Fragments of an intercepted projectile struck an Aramco office tower in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District on Nov. 8.
The Saudi energy ministry attributed the damage to falling shrapnel and said no deaths or injuries were reported. The Telegraph reported damage to the tower’s upper floors and its facade.
Saudi authorities put the toll from suspected Houthi drone and missile attacks on the kingdom at at least 26 killed since Sept. 23, Al Jazeera reported. That figure is the kingdom’s own, and Yemen Herald found no independent tally for the same period.
The Houthis have given Saudi air strikes as their reason for the campaign. Long War Journal said the group pointed to strikes on a market in Taiz on Nov. 6 and on the Bani Hushaysh district outside Sanaa on Nov. 7.
Houthi officials claimed dozens were killed in each. Long War Journal said it had not verified those figures, and Yemen Herald found no second origin for them.
Fighting inside Yemen has continued alongside the cross-border exchanges. Saree said the coalition carried out 72 air strikes in Saada, Taiz, Lahij and al-Jawf over 24 hours, and that Houthi forces fired ballistic missiles at Saudi-backed units in the Kharaz area of Lahij, Al Jazeera reported.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Nov. 12 to extend sanctions on Yemen for a year and demanded an end to Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is pressing the European Union to designate the Houthi movement, Ansar Allah, a terrorist organisation, Reuters reported. EU officials have said the step could set back peace efforts, according to Al Jazeera.
The Telegraph reported that the Houthis were thought to have demanded $51 billion from Saudi Arabia, which denied it.
The Telegraph dates the war to attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel in February, and a 2022 truce that collapsed in July.
Saree’s Arabic statements carry the rank of brigadier general, which the movement’s English releases leave off.
About the Author
