Air-raid sirens sounded again across Saudi Arabia early Sunday as the Riyadh-led coalition reported intercepting two ballistic missiles aimed at Khamis Mushait and three drones over the capital and the Eastern Province. The strikes mark the latest in a string of Houthi attacks that have rattled the kingdom for nearly three weeks and reignited fears of a wider regional flare-up.
Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence had issued pre-dawn warnings for Riyadh, Khamis Mushait and Abha before officials confirmed, within minutes, that the threats had been neutralized. A near-identical sequence unfolded the previous day, when an early warning covering Khamis Mushait and Abha was lifted in roughly four minutes; the coalition said it destroyed four additional drones over Riyadh, the Eastern Province and the kingdom’s southern regions that day. Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki also announced the destruction of two ballistic missile launchers inside Yemen’s northern Saada governorate, a longstanding Houthi stronghold.
The latest barrage is part of an escalation that began in early October, when deadly strikes on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport killed at least thirteen people and wounded hundreds more, with additional casualties reported in a separate attack on Abha’s airport. Several Western governments, including the United Kingdom, have since advised against all but essential travel to the kingdom, underscoring how far the fallout has spread beyond the battlefield.
International backing for Riyadh has hardened in response. Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias confirmed that Greek-operated Patriot air-defence batteries remain deployed at Yanbu to shield critical energy infrastructure. In Cairo, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Saturday that Egypt stood ready to take the necessary defensive measures to support Saudi Arabia should Riyadh request them, a pledge echoed by Egypt’s National Defence Council.
On the diplomatic front, Yemen’s internationally recognised government has called on the United Nations Security Council to formally condemn the attacks, describing them as repeated violations of international law. The Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, for his part, reiterated that Saudi Arabia’s security remains inseparable from that of the bloc’s other member states, a statement reflecting regional solidarity that has only hardened as the conflict drags on.
