Saudi says intercepted new drone strike in Riyadh

RIYADH: Saudi air defences intercepted a drone in the Riyadh region on Saturday, according to the spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition fighting Yemen's Ansar Allah group. 'Air defences intercepted and destroyed a hostile drone in the Riyadh region,' Turki al Malki wrote on X, adding that 'debris from the interception fell without causing injuries'. Malki did not say who launched the drone.
In recent weeks, Yemen's Ansar Allah have ramped up attacks on Saudi Arabia, including by launching deadly strikes on Riyadh airport that forced its closure for two weeks and the cancellation of flagship events — threatening the kingdom's economic diversification plans. On Friday, Malki said the Ansar Allah had targeted the Medina region, home to Islam's second holiest city, but the group later denied the claim.
The attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, airports and ships come after hostilities resumed in Yemen over the summer between the Ansar Allah and the country's internationally recognised government. More than 1,600 people have been killed and over 275,000 displaced since the fighting reignited, according to United Nations figures.
In July, a fragile 2022 truce fell apart after the Ansar Allah allowed an Iranian plane to land in Yemen's capital Sanaa in defiance of Saudi control over Yemeni airspace, setting off a spate of attacks. Later, the Ansar Allah declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began hitting its ships, territory and oil facilities, before seizing Yemen's entire Red Sea coast in a lightning campaign. The group has reported frequent Saudi air strikes in areas they control as Riyadh retaliates.
Yemen's Ansar Allah targeted the presidential palace in Aden on Friday with two missiles, a police official said, hours after Saudi forces said they had intercepted an attack by the group on the Gulf kingdom. Aden, the seat of Yemen's Saudi-backed and internationally recognised government, has been targeted repeatedly since Yemen's dormant civil war reignited in July.
Two eyewitnesses said that they saw ambulances entering the palace in Aden, a large compound made up of several buildings including facilities used by government and Saudi-led coalition forces, after the incident. Shortly before, residents and a journalist said they heard two blasts in the city.
The group, which controls the capital Sanaa to the north, most recently struck the perimeter of Aden's airport on Wednesday after saying they had targeted a naval base and a military camp last week. The Saudi coalition, which is fighting the Ansar Allah, said on Friday it had intercepted and destroyed a drone near the Saudi capital of Riyadh, as well as a missile fired towards the country's southern region. In two posts on X, coalition spokesman Turki al Malki said forces had destroyed the drone in Riyadh province as well as 'a ballistic missile launched toward the southern region'.
Hours later, Malki reported another drone interception, this time over the Medina region, home to Islam's second holiest city. Yemen's war began in 2014. A ceasefire in 2022 brought relative peace until this summer, when the conflict burst back into life. More than a decade of warfare has created a humanitarian catastrophe in one of the world's poorest countries, which the UN estimates is home to 42 million people. — AFP