16.9.2026
Saudi Arabia intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone south of the Islamic holy city of Mecca on Tuesday evening, according to the spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
Turki al-Maliki said the targeting of Mecca, which is the home of Islam’s most sacred shrine and the focal point of the Hajj pilgrimage, was a “disgraceful act”.
The 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said attacks on Mecca and Medina province, where Islam’s second holiest shrine is located, constituted an “unacceptable and intolerable transgression”.
But the Houthis, an Iran-backed armed group that controls much of western Yemen, denied targeting Mecca and accused Saudi Arabia of “fabrications and lies”.
“There is no threat whatsoever from Yemen to the holy sites. Our operations target their oil facilities and military bases, and are far removed from the holy places,” military spokesman Yahya Sarea said.
Sarea added that the Houthis had launched drones and missiles at Saudi Arabia in retaliation for more than 450 Saudi air strikes on their territory over the past week.
He also said they had shot down a Saudi fighter jet over Marib province.
On Tuesday, Saudi authorities issued a series of brief security alerts for incoming projectiles in a number of western areas, including Mecca and Jeddah, the kingdom’s second largest city.
The Houthis have recently seized control of large swathes of Yemen’s Red Sea coast from Saudi-backed pro-government forces.
Last week, they captured the strategic port city of Mokha and Perim Island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern gateway to a key shipping route that links Asia and Europe via the Red Sea and the Suez canal.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia’s key East-West Pipeline, which was being used to transfer crude oil from the Gulf to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, had to be closed after it was badly damaged in a strike that the kingdom blamed on Iran-backed militias in Iraq.
Some experts have said it could take more than a month to repair the pipeline, but US Energy Secretary Chris Wright predicted on Tuesday that oil should be flowing through it within days.