The latest:
Air-raid sirens sounded twice overnight in Riyadh and in Kharj, east of the capital, and a Reuters journalist heard two explosions in the city’s Olaya district. Saudi civil defense later announced the emergency had ended, reporting no damage or casualties. The alerts were the first for Riyadh since Houthi forces intensified attacks on the kingdom.
Details:
- The timeline: The first alert sounded around 3:00 a.m. Saudi time and the second around 5:25 a.m. Sirens had gone off in Farasan shortly before 1:00 a.m., and successive waves of alerts were reported across Yanbu, Taif, Jeddah, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Abha.
- The trigger: Hours before the sirens, the Houthi military spokesman said the group had foiled unspecified criminal attempts in Sanaa, accused Saudi Arabia of responsibility and vowed to retaliate. The Saudi government media office issued no immediate comment on the statement.
- The Houthi count: Spokesman Yahya Saree said Saudi F-15s flying from Khamis Mushait base carried out 26 strikes on Taiz province in 24 hours, and claimed Riyadh had conducted roughly 300 attacks across Yemen since the start of the week. Khamis Mushait was itself among the areas where sirens sounded.
- The blockade: The Iran-aligned group, which controls Yemen’s most populous areas and much of the north, has struck toward the kingdom since declaring a naval blockade on Riyadh in July, targeting Saudi vessels in the Red Sea. It seized the entire Yemeni Red Sea coast in a rapid advance this month.
- The energy exposure: Yanbu, among the alerted cities, hosts a main oil export terminal used to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. The East-West pipeline feeding Yanbu was attacked last week and shut down; Iran-aligned Iraqi militias deny involvement and President Donald Trump blamed Iran. Riyadh is transferring oil ship-to-ship off Oman’s Sohar port, Reuters reported.
- The defense gap: The Associated Press reported this week that Saudi interceptor missile stocks are running low and that Riyadh has asked France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt for air-defense assistance. The United States remains the main supplier, but depleted American stockpiles pushed the kingdom toward other allies.
- The US channel: Reuters reported that US officials met Houthi representatives Sunday at the American embassy in Muscat, a meeting never officially announced but confirmed by three sources. The Houthis said they would honor their 2025 ceasefire with Washington and avoid US shipping; one Yemeni official said Israeli and commercial vessels were also excluded, but not Saudi ones.
- The Mecca claim: Riyadh said the Houthis launched a drone toward Mecca this week, intercepted it, and called firing at the city roughly 1,100 kilometers from the Yemeni border a crossing of a red line. The Houthis flatly denied launching any drone, and protests against Saudi Arabia were held in Yemen over the accusation.
- The humanitarian toll: Qatari daily Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported that fighting has intensified on several fronts, particularly along the western coast and around Bab al-Mandab, with more than 112,000 people displaced since the start of the month and emergency medical supplies arriving in Sanaa to cover shortages.
- The UN response: The Security Council said Friday it condemns in the strongest terms the continuing Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, including strikes affecting civilian and energy infrastructure that wounded civilians, among them women and children. It also condemned the Houthi military escalation inside Yemen.
Background:
The Houthis control Yemen’s most densely populated regions and, after this month’s coastal advance that defeated Saudi-backed government forces, hold effective sway over the Bab al-Mandab strait, one of the world’s main shipping arteries.
Between the lines:
The pattern of the alerts points to reach rather than concentration: sirens in Yanbu, Jeddah, Taif and Abha on the same night, alongside a claimed drone toward Mecca, stretch Saudi defenses across the kingdom’s western flank at the moment interceptor stocks are thinning. Reuters reporting that the Houthis exempted US, Israeli and commercial shipping while excluding Saudi vessels indicates a campaign narrowed deliberately onto the kingdom.
What’s next
Watch for Saudi responses to the four allied capitals asked for air-defense support, further sirens along the Red Sea corridor, whether the East-West pipeline resumes operation, and any follow-up contact between Washington and the Houthis in Muscat.
