Source : BRICS NEWS
RIYADH, November 3, 2026 – The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen says it intercepted and destroyed a drone over the Mecca region in western Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, as hostilities between the kingdom and Yemen’s Houthi movement continued to escalate.
BRICS News reported the interception in a post on X, saying: “Saudi Arabia says its forces intercepted a drone in the Mecca region.”
Major General Turki al-Malki, official spokesman of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, said an unmanned aerial vehicle had been “intercepted and destroyed in Makkah Region”, the Saudi Press Agency reported at 12:36 PM local time. He gave no details of any injuries or damage, or of where the drone had been launched from, Anadolu Agency said.
The interception came a day after the coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile and two drones fired by the Houthis towards Saudi territory. Mr al-Malki later said two more drones had been destroyed, one over the Eastern Province and another heading towards the south of the kingdom, bringing Tuesday’s total to three, Xinhua reported.
The Houthis rejected the Saudi account. Military spokesman Yahya Saree denied that the group had carried out any attacks on Saudi territory on Tuesday, calling the coalition’s statement “a slanderous and recycled lie”, AFP reported. Saudi Arabia has accused the Houthis several times of targeting Mecca and Medina, Islam’s two holiest cities, accusations the group has systematically rejected, saying it does not target holy sites.
At the same time, the Houthis have claimed drone attacks on Saudi airports in the east and south of the kingdom. On Tuesday Mr Saree said the group had targeted Abha International Airport with a drone and King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait with a ballistic missile, both in the south-western Asir region, claims that could not be independently verified. The group said on Tuesday that Saudi air strikes had killed 17 civilians over two days, and its health ministry said most of the dead were children. Mr Saree said on Monday evening that Riyadh had carried out “109 strikes over the past 24 hours” in the governorates of Saada, Taiz, Lahj, Al-Jawf and Hodeidah.
Yemen has been at war since 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa. Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition against the group since March 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government. A truce agreed in 2022 fell apart in July, and in September the Houthis captured areas overlooking the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which links the Red Sea and the Suez Canal with the Gulf of Aden.
The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since the fighting resumed in the impoverished country. Yemen’s government has also accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah of sending experts to direct Houthi military operations, allegations Tehran rejects.
Any threat to the Mecca region is especially sensitive for Muslims worldwide, as the city is home to the Grand Mosque and receives millions of pilgrims each year for Haj and Umrah.
Source: BRICS News on X
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