Saudi Coalition Says It Downed Houthi Drones Over Medina and Eastern Region as Aden Palace Hit

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said early on Saturday that it had intercepted and destroyed a drone over Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Region, in the latest flare-up of cross-border attacks that also saw a Houthi drone claim over Medina and missiles strike Yemen’s presidential palace in Aden on Friday.

The coalition said it later intercepted and destroyed a second drone launched towards the Southern Region, according to Reuters. The Houthi movement, which controls Yemen’s capital Sanaa, denied carrying out any attack on Saudi territory.

FAKTA

• What happened: The Saudi-led coalition said it downed a drone over the Eastern Region early on Saturday and another towards the Southern Region, after reporting a Houthi drone over the Medina region on Friday.
• Aden attack: Two missiles targeted the Maashiq presidential palace complex in Aden on Friday, a police official told AFP; residents and an AFP journalist heard two explosions, and ambulances were seen entering the compound.
• Denial: Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said Yemeni forces had carried out no operation directed at Saudi territory and dismissed the Medina claim as a fabrication.
• Damage and casualties: No casualty or damage figures for the Aden palace attack or the reported interceptions had been made public by the early hours of Saturday.
• Context: Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, Saudi Arabia intervened in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government, and fighting reignited this summer after a 2022 ceasefire brought relative calm.

Houthi drone Medina claim denied by Sanaa

On Friday, the coalition said its forces had intercepted and destroyed a drone launched by Yemen’s Houthis over the Medina region. Medina is home to one of Islam’s holiest sites and is visited by millions of Muslim pilgrims each year.

The Houthis have repeatedly denied targeting Mecca and Medina, Islam’s two holiest cities, rejecting previous Saudi-led coalition accusations that they had launched drones towards the cities. Saree said on Friday that Yemeni forces had not carried out any operation directed towards the Saudi interior.

Earlier on Friday, the coalition also announced that it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone over the Mecca region, and said it had destroyed a drone near Riyadh and intercepted a ballistic missile launched towards the Southern Region, coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said in posts on social media, according to AFP reporting.

Missiles strike Aden presidential palace

In Aden, the stronghold of Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, two missiles targeted the presidential palace on Friday, a police official told AFP. Two eyewitnesses told AFP that ambulances were seen entering the palace compound, a sprawling complex that includes facilities used by government officials and Saudi-led coalition forces.

Shortly before the reported attack, residents and an AFP journalist said they heard two explosions in the city. The Houthis had most recently targeted the perimeter of Aden’s airport on Wednesday, and had claimed responsibility for attacks on a naval base and a military camp the previous week.

Aden’s port in an earlier photograph. Aden, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, has faced repeated attacks since the country’s long-dormant civil war reignited in July. (File photo)

Why the Eastern Region matters

The Eastern Region is Saudi Arabia’s economic powerhouse: it contains the majority of the kingdom’s oil and gas reserves and is home to oil giant Saudi Aramco’s headquarters, which suffered extensive damage in an attack earlier in October, Reuters reported. The region has been subject to multiple Houthi attacks in the past few weeks.

Reuters notes that cross-border fighting between the coalition, which backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government, and the Iran-aligned Houthis has intensified amid the wider US–Israeli war on Iran, opening another front in that conflict.

A war reignited

Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when Houthi forces seized control of Sanaa. Saudi Arabia intervened the following year in support of the internationally recognised government. A ceasefire reached in 2022 brought a period of relative calm, but the conflict reignited this summer, raising fears of renewed instability.

More than a decade of fighting has devastated Yemen, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The United Nations estimates the country, one of the poorest globally, has a population of approximately 42 million.

For more coverage of the region, see Watan News Middle East.