The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said on Tuesday that its air defenses intercepted two missiles fired toward Riyadh overnight, a third ballistic missile aimed at the kingdom’s southern region, and a drone over the oil-rich Eastern Province. In the same hours, the Houthi-run Saba news agency reported Saudi airstrikes on Sanaa, the Yemeni capital the Houthis control. Neither side has confirmed the other’s account.
The coalition said its defenses destroyed a ballistic missile and a cruise missile fired toward the capital, and a separate ballistic missile over the south. Saudi Civil Defence had issued early warning alerts for Riyadh and for the southwestern cities of Abha and Khamis Mushait. Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki attributed the launches to the Iran-aligned Houthis. The Houthis did not immediately claim responsibility for the launches.
Saba reported that the strikes on Sanaa hit the al-Mufazir gas station in the Jadar district in the north of the capital and a building belonging to the state oil company in the south, and that civil defense teams were fighting a fire in gas trailers at the station. Saudi authorities did not immediately confirm the reported strikes, and no casualty figures were given in the first reports.
The night follows several days of escalation. The coalition said on Monday that it had destroyed three Houthi facilities used for ballistic missile production, and the Houthi military spokesman has claimed hundreds of coalition strikes across Yemen in recent days, figures that come from the parties themselves and cannot be independently verified. Over the weekend the coalition intercepted earlier missiles toward Riyadh and the Eastern Province, and the Houthi-run health ministry said 33 people were killed in strikes on a village near Sanaa on Saturday, a toll Zark News reported with full attribution in a separate story.
What to watch is confirmation. The interceptions rest on the coalition’s statements; the Sanaa strikes rest on Houthi-run media. Casualty reports, damage assessments and any Houthi claim of responsibility would each move this story, and it will be updated as they arrive.
Transparency note: every military claim in this story is attributed to the side that made it. The coalition’s interception claims and Saba’s strike reports are both unconfirmed by the other party, and no independent verification of either was available at publication.
