GCC condemns Houthi missile and drone attacks on Riyadh and Khamis Mushait

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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Gulf Cooperation Council condemned Houthi ballistic missile and drone attacks on Riyadh and Khamis Mushait on Saturday, its secretary-general said.

Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi issued the statement. The Saudi Press Agency carried it.

He described the attacks as a flagrant violation of Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty and a direct threat to the security and safety of civilians.

Albudaiwi called them a grave escalation and a threat to regional security.

He called on the international community to adopt a decisive stance to end what he described as recurrent terrorist attacks, and to hold those responsible to account.

Member states stand in full solidarity with Saudi Arabia and back all measures it takes to safeguard its security, sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said.

The statement followed an announcement by the Saudi-led coalition.

Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, the coalition’s official spokesman, said early Saturday that its forces had intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles headed for Khamis Mushait, in the south-western Asir region, and two drones aimed at the Riyadh region.

No casualties or damage were reported.

The account of the attacks and of their interception rests on the Saudi-led coalition and on the Gulf Cooperation Council. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of either.

The Houthis dispute the wider characterisation of the fighting. They accused Saudi Arabia on 18 September of carrying out 26 airstrikes on areas under their control within 24 hours, and about 300 attacks across their territory in the previous week, Al Jazeera reported.

Yemen’s government said its forces killed 30 Houthi fighters and wounded more than 60 in clashes in the al-Waziiyah district of Taiz province over the same period, according to the same report. Yemen Herald has not independently verified either set of figures.

Saudi Arabia reported one death in Taif governorate earlier in September after intercepting a Houthi drone, Al Jazeera reported. Houthi-linked media reported deaths from Saudi strikes in Taiz and in Abs.

The Gulf Cooperation Council groups Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Its secretariat is in Riyadh.

Albudaiwi and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia at a meeting in New York earlier in the month, according to an account issued by the council’s secretariat general.

The exchanges follow an escalation that began in early September.

The UN Security Council issued a press statement on 18 September. Members condemned in the strongest terms continued Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, including attacks affecting civilian and energy infrastructure.

They expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia and affirmed its inherent right to self-defence in accordance with international law.

Members said at least 125,000 people had been displaced across Yemen since early September, and that continued escalation would further exacerbate the humanitarian situation.

They stressed the importance of fully implementing Resolution 2216, adopted in 2015, and called for preventing the Houthis from acquiring arms and military assistance.

Council members reiterated their condemnation of attacks and threats against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab.

They demanded the unconditional release of 73 detained UN personnel. They backed UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg in his efforts towards a negotiated, inclusive, Yemeni-led and Yemeni-owned political settlement.

Abdullah al-Alimi Bawazir, vice-president of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, told the General Assembly on 24 September that lasting maritime security in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab and the Gulf of Aden cannot be built while a non-state armed militia remains on the shores.

“The path to a secure sea requires a stable Yemen. There is no stability in Yemen without restoring the state,” he said.

He said his government had engaged responsibly and positively with peace efforts, and accused the Houthis of intransigence. The group had used humanitarian truces to build military capacity, he said.

UNICEF said on 25 September that at least 15 children had been killed and 14 injured in Yemen since 3 September, and that three more were reported missing.

An estimated 71,000 children had been displaced in three weeks, the agency said. Akhil Iyer, its country representative in Yemen, gave the figures at a briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Yemen Herald has not independently verified the casualty count.

UNICEF said 243 schools had closed or suspended classes, affecting more than 137,000 students. It said more than 2.2 million children under five were projected to be acutely malnourished this year.

Those figures were higher than the ones the agency gave earlier in the month. On 16 September UNICEF said nine children had been killed and 12 injured since 3 September, and that 26 health facilities it supports had been disrupted.

The UN humanitarian response plan for 2026, issued in March, puts more than 22 million people in Yemen in need of assistance and 18.3 million as acutely food insecure.

The plan records 5.2 million internally displaced people. It seeks USD 2.16 billion to reach 12 million of them.

Resolution 2216 imposed a targeted arms embargo on the Houthi leadership and demanded that the group withdraw from areas it had seized, including Sanaa.

Khamis Mushait lies in Asir province, in the south-west of Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen.