The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis said on Friday it had intercepted a drone in the region of Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, following repeated attacks on the kingdom by the pro-Iran group.
“Interception and destruction of a drone in the Mecca region,” Turki al-Malki, the coalition’s spokesman, wrote on social media, without elaborating on the source of the attack.
Since the breakdown of a truce in July, Saudi Arabia has traded blows with the Houthis, who have struck Saudi airports, energy infrastructure and military sites.
But the group has repeatedly said their forces will not target the holy cities of Mecca or Medina.
On Thursday, the Saudi coalition said it had intercepted a missile fired by the Houthis at the Medina region, a claim denounced by the group as “blatant and grave falsehood.”
On the ground in Yemen, the Houthis have also been fighting forces from the country’s Saudi-backed internationally recognized government.
A September offensive saw the Houthis capture areas overlooking the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, which links Europe to Asia via the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
Government forces have since been trying to retake territory, backed by Saudi air power.
