RIYADH (The Thursday Times) — The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Thursday it had intercepted and destroyed a drone over the Riyadh region, the latest in a string of Houthi attacks on the kingdom as the war inside Yemen spreads across several fronts.
Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki announced the interception in a brief statement and gave no further details, including where the drone was launched from or what it was aimed at.
Hours earlier, Saudi civil defence said debris from two intercepted ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis had fallen in the village of Sabuhah in the Mecca region. The Houthis have denied targeting Mecca, saying instead that they aimed at a pumping station in Yanbu and at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.
Fighting on several fronts
Inside Yemen, forces of the internationally recognised government, backed by the coalition, say they have stepped up operations against the Houthis in Marib, Al-Jawf, Taiz, Hajjah, and Dhale, as well as in western Lahj.
Army spokesman Colonel Majed al-Nuzaili has said government forces carried out hundreds of artillery, rocket, drone, and air strikes over recent days and killed or wounded well over 100 Houthi fighters. His figures could not be independently verified, and the tallies he has published have varied from day to day.
The Houthis have kept up shelling of Aden, the seat of the government. Information Minister Salem al-Awalqi said the latest attacks hit the densely populated al-Buraiqa district and accused the group of targeting civilians.
The fighting has driven more families from their homes as it nears populated areas in Lahj and on the edges of Taiz.
The Pakistan angle
Pakistan is bound to Saudi Arabia’s security through the Makkah defence alliance. This week, the military’s spokesman said Pakistan’s commitment to the kingdom’s security was “non-negotiable” and that the pact had moved into implementation.
