RIYADH (The Thursday Times) — Saudi air defences intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis towards the kingdom’s Eastern Province early on Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition said, the third such attack in as many days.
Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki announced the interception on X without giving further details or reporting any casualties or damage. Saudi Civil Defence had issued an early warning alert in the Eastern Province over an unspecified threat before later declaring the all-clear there and in Najran.
Three days, three attacks
On Wednesday, the coalition said it had intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile fired towards the western city of Taif. Late on Tuesday, debris from two intercepted missiles damaged a building, a construction project and a vehicle in the capital, Riyadh, Civil Defence said, without reporting casualties.
The attacks are part of a sustained Houthi campaign against the kingdom this month. Missiles were fired towards Mecca and Medina on October 25, and a strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport earlier in the month killed at least 13 people, according to reports. The coalition says it has struck Houthi missile launchers and storage tunnels in Yemen in response.
Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition against the Houthis since March 2015, after the group seized the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and much of the country. The fighting has escalated as the wider war involving Iran has drawn in groups across the region.
