Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile over the Eastern Province
Yemen Herald News 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile fired toward the kingdom’s Eastern Province on Thursday.
Turki al-Maliki, the coalition’s spokesman, said air defences had intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by what he called the terrorist Houthi militia.
He posted the statement on X. The news agency AFP reported it the same day.
The coalition reported no casualties and no damage from the interception.
The account rests on the coalition’s own statement. No independent confirmation of the launch or of the interception has been published, and the statement gave no detail on the missile’s trajectory or on the system used against it.
No comment from Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, on Thursday’s launch appeared in wire reports.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Yemen had launched missile and drone attacks on southern and eastern Saudi Arabia. The drone element of that account, and the reference to southern targets, could not be verified.
The interception followed several days of exchanges between the Houthis and the coalition.
The coalition said on Tuesday that it had intercepted three ballistic missiles aimed at the Eastern Province, four drones headed toward southern Saudi Arabia and two missiles over Riyadh.
Saree said the same day that Houthi forces had struck the Ras Tanura refinery directly.
Bloomberg reported that a fire near the site had been contained. The extent of any damage was not established.
On Wednesday, missile debris damaged a building in Riyadh and a missile fired toward Taif was intercepted, according to the coalition.
Saree said Houthi forces had hit the Defence Ministry in Riyadh directly that day. The coalition did not confirm the claim.
The Houthis said on Monday that they had carried out drone attacks on pumping stations along the East-West pipeline.
Saudi Aramco has not confirmed any damage to the pipeline.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard declared the Strait of Hormuz closed the same day.
Saudi civil defence teams responded on Oct. 24 to falling debris in the Makkah and Medina regions after two Houthi missiles were intercepted, the coalition said.
The Houthis denied targeting the two cities and described the Saudi account as a huge lie.
Houthi forces struck Saudi airports repeatedly earlier in the escalation, between Oct. 6 and Oct. 12.
A missile and drone attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Oct. 6 and 7 killed a Sudanese national and injured eight. An attack on Abha International Airport over the same period killed two women, from Algeria and Morocco, and wounded 28.
The General Authority of Civil Aviation said three Saudi citizens, among them a pilot, were killed on Oct. 8, when a strike destroyed a Saudia Airbus A320 at the Riyadh airport.
A ballistic missile struck a complex housing Terminals 3 and 4 on Oct. 10. Thirteen people died, including an Indian man who died of his injuries the next day, and 308 were injured.
Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said a mufti was among the dead and that 24 Bangladeshis were injured.
Terminal 4 was struck again on Oct. 11, killing a Pakistani resident and injuring 11. King Fahd International Airport in Dammam was attacked the same day, with no casualties reported.
Al-Maliki called the Oct. 10 attack a full-fledged war crime and said the coalition would respond.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi official, said the group carried out the airport attacks in retaliation for Saudi strikes on civilian infrastructure in Yemen.
Saree warned airlines against using Saudi airports and airspace, naming the airports at Makkah and Madina as exceptions.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled. Air India, Akasa Air, Lufthansa and Pakistan International Airlines suspended services to Riyadh.
The civil aviation authority extended the closure of King Khalid International Airport to Oct. 17.
Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, condemned the Oct. 10 attack. Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, called the attacks a grave escalation.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi energy minister, warned of a serious response at an energy conference in Riyadh on Oct. 11.
Al Jazeera reported on Oct. 12 that Houthi missiles had been fired at the Saudi capital for a third consecutive day.
Saudi Arabia intercepted all three missiles fired that day, one of them aimed at King Khalid International Airport.
US President Donald Trump called the Oct. 10 attack terrible and said Washington would make a decision on whether to intervene.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attacks and said a US citizen had been killed.
The African Union, the Arab League and the European Union also condemned the attacks, and several governments issued travel warnings.
Iran offered to mediate between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia.
The Eastern Province holds much of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, including the Ras Tanura refinery and export terminal.
Fighting resumed in July, when a truce that had held for about four years broke down.
The United Nations brokered that truce in 2022.
The escalation has run alongside the wider conflict between the United States and Iran.
Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of encouraging the Houthi campaign against the kingdom. Tehran denies it.
The coalition entered Yemen’s war in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government.
The Houthis have administered Sanaa since 2014. The government operates from Aden.
Al-Maliki did not say how many launches the coalition had recorded this month.
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