Saudi defences intercept Houthi ballistic missile and drone aimed at southern region as cross-border strikes escalate
Saudi air defences intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile and an unmanned aerial vehicle launched by the Houthi militia towards the kingdom’s southern region, the Saudi-led coalition said on Monday, as both sides reported fresh strikes across the border.
Saudi air defences intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile and an unmanned aerial vehicle launched by the Houthi militia towards the kingdom’s southern region, the Saudi-led coalition said on Monday, in the latest sign that cross-border hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis are intensifying rather than easing.
The announcement was made by Major General Turki Al-Maliki, spokesman for the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, and reported on Monday by the Saudi Gazette and in Gulf News’s live coverage of the regional crisis. The coalition said both projectiles were aimed at the southern region of the kingdom and were intercepted before they could cause damage on the ground.
Saudi Civil Defence later said the danger had passed in Najran Province, Khamis Mushait Governorate and Abha City, three southern areas that have repeatedly been in the path of Houthi missiles and drones during Yemen’s long war. No casualties or damage from the intercepted weapons were reported in the coalition announcement.
The interception came as the Houthis reported a heavy round of airstrikes on their side of the border. Houthi-run al-Masirah television said on Sunday evening that strikes had hit Ras Isa port, a key oil terminal on Yemen’s Red Sea coast in Hodeidah province, damaging a berth at the facility and a commercial vessel docked there, and that a telecommunications facility south-east of Saada city had also been hit.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement that 75 air and missile strikes had hit the provinces of Saada, Taiz, Amran, Ibb, Dhamar, Lahj, Hodeidah and Al-Jawf over the previous 24 hours. He also claimed the strikes had caused civilian casualties and put the total number of strikes since the latest escalation began at 3,830. Those figures could not be independently verified, and the coalition has not confirmed the Houthi account of the Ras Isa strikes in the reporting so far.
The exchange fits a pattern of escalation in recent weeks. The Saudi-led coalition has been striking Houthi-held areas of Yemen, including targets in Hodeidah and Dhamar, while the Houthis have continued to launch missiles and drones towards Saudi territory and to threaten Saudi oil infrastructure and aviation. On Sunday, Iranian state media also reported a strike on an industrial complex in Dammam, in eastern Saudi Arabia, that sparked a large fire, underlining how the fighting has spread beyond the immediate border area.
Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen in late 2014. The war has since become one of the region’s most protracted conflicts, with repeated cycles of cross-border missile and drone attacks, coalition airstrikes, and failed or stalled peace efforts.
The latest round is unfolding against a much wider regional crisis. The United States and Israel are at war with Iran, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian Gulf has come under repeated attack, and Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have condemned attacks on commercial vessels and energy infrastructure while pressing for a diplomatic way out.
For civilians in southern Saudi Arabia, the immediate effect of Monday’s interception was a brief alert followed by an all-clear. For Yemen, the reported strikes on Ras Isa — a port that handles fuel imports for Houthi-held areas — raise the prospect of further pressure on supplies in a country already facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, although the scale of any damage there remains unconfirmed.
What happens next will depend on whether either side pulls back from the current tempo of strikes. A further round of Houthi launches towards Saudi cities would test the kingdom’s air defences again and could draw a heavier coalition response, while continued strikes on Yemeni ports and infrastructure would deepen the humanitarian strain and complicate any mediation. For now, the pattern of the past few days — interception announcements in Riyadh, strike claims from Sanaa, and no sign of a ceasefire — looks set to continue.
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