Houthis claim six attacks on Saudi airports and oil sites; Saudi-led coalition says it destroyed a drone launched toward the Mecca region

Claims by the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition about attacks and interceptions cannot be independently confirmed.

Yemen’s Houthis said on Thursday 29 October that they had carried out six attacks on targets across Saudi Arabia. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on X that the group fired ballistic missiles at the Ras Tanura and Rabigh oil refineries, a missile at an Aramco facility in Abqaiq, several missiles at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and a drone at King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, and struck a Saudi military headquarters in the Najran region, Al Jazeera reported. Saudi authorities have not confirmed those attacks.

The Saudi-led coalition said its air defences destroyed two ballistic missiles fired toward Riyadh on Thursday. Saudi Civil Defence said shrapnel from an interception wounded one Saudi citizen in Riyadh and damaged a house and a vehicle. On Friday morning coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said a Houthi drone launched toward the Mecca region was “intercepted and destroyed”, and that a cruise missile aimed at western Saudi Arabia had been brought down earlier.

A Houthi spokesperson denied targeting Mecca or its surroundings, saying: “Our operations target [Saudi] oil facilities and military bases.”

Background

The attacks came days after senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan met Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei in Tehran, after which the Saudi foreign ministry stressed the importance of negotiation channels “to prevent a return to military escalation”. See also: Houthi missile toward Eastern Province.