Saudi-led coalition intercepts Houthi missile launched towards Riyadh

Saudi civil defence says danger passed after it issued two warnings through its national early warning platform.

Residential homes were damaged on Tuesday by falling shrapnel resulting from the interception of two cruise missiles in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia [Saudi Press Agency via Reuters]

The Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile launched towards Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, as the Yemeni armed group said it carried out more attacks on the kingdom.

Coalition spokesman Major-General Turki al-Maliki on Wednesday announced the thwarted attack on X, days after two separate strikes hit Riyadh’s King Khalid international airport, killing 14 people and injuring hundreds.

list 1 of 3 The escalation in Yemen is a turning point

list 2 of 3 How the Middle East conflict is threatening data centres, internet cables

list 3 of 3 Yemeni government launches air strikes on Houthi positions

The General Directorate of Saudi Civil Defence also issued two alerts through its national early warning platform, later saying the danger had passed. One alert was for the Al-Kharj governorate in Riyadh province, and the other for the capital.

The Houthis, an armed group also known as Ansar Allah (Arabic for supporters of God), issued a statement saying they targeted facilities of Saudi ⁠⁠Arabia’s national oil company Aramco in Dhahran, an Aramco refinery in Riyadh, and the capital’s King Khalid international ‌‌airport.

Overnight, the Saudi Ministry of Energy confirmed that the administrative building belonging to Aramco in Dhahran was hit.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from the Qatari capital Doha, said any notion that the Saudi-led coalition could contain the conflict to Yemen had been shattered over the last 10 days, which saw the targeting of several sites in Saudi Arabia.

Houthi attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid international airport over the weekend killed 14 people and wounded more than 300 others. Houthi attacks have also been reported on other airports , including the Abha international airport, where two people were killed, and on Aramco facilities.

Meanwhile, Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have launched a counteroffensive in Yemen to retake coastal territory from the Houthis near the Bab al-Mandeb strait at the entrance to the Red Sea, a vital maritime trade chokepoint.

Fighting in Yemen between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces escalated sharply last month, shattering a United Nations-brokered ceasefire that had largely held since 2022.

The Houthis have controlled Yemen’s most populous areas, including the capital Sanaa, since seizing the city in 2014, forcing the internationally recognised government to flee to southern Yemen.

The Muslim World League on Wednesday condemned the continued Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, saying they deliberately target civilians and civilian sites. The league’s secretary-general, Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, said their nature confirms “the criminal approach of this terrorist militia in deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure”.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah television reported that four air strikes hit the Harib district in the country’s Marib governorate. The results of the attacks were not immediately clear.

Nawaf Obaid, a security and intelligence analyst and senior research fellow at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera that while air strikes are intensifying, the “actual ground war hasn’t really begun” for the Saudi-led coalition.

Obaid broke down the phases in which such an operation could unfold, saying the first phase would be “to hit at basically the power and the energy source that’s allowing the Houthis to operate … tanks, armoured vehicles, trucks”.

Phase two would be to look at the “systematic increase of Houthi control in the region, which is critical,” he said.

Phase three would involve a discussion on how “to start taking back these territories that the Houthis have gained since the beginning of the war”.

Obaid said these “multipronged phases” would include “extra-specialised” troops, especially in mountain warfare, because the Houthis are taking the battlefield into difficult terrain.

沙特民防部门表示，在通过其国家预警平台发出两次警告后，危险已经过去。

周二，沙特阿拉伯利雅得拦截了两枚巡航导弹，飞溅的弹片击中民宅造成损坏。[沙特通讯社 via 路透社]

沙特领导的联军称，他们拦截并摧毁了一枚射向沙特阿拉伯首都利雅得的胡塞武装弹道导弹。与此同时，胡塞武装声称对沙特王国发动了更多袭击。

联军发言人图尔基·马利基少将周三宣布挫败了对X的袭击。几天前，利雅得的哈立德国王国际机场遭到两次袭击，造成14人死亡，数百人受伤。

列表 1/3 也门局势升级是一个转折点

列表 2/3：中东冲突如何威胁数据中心和互联网电缆

也门政府对胡塞武装阵地发动空袭（共3条，此为第3条）

沙特民防总局也通过其国家预警平台发布了两份警报，随后表示危险已经解除。一份警报针对利雅得省的哈尔吉省，另一份针对首都沙特。

胡塞武装（又称安萨尔真主，阿拉伯语意为“真主的支持者”）发表声明称，他们袭击了沙特阿拉伯国家石油公司阿美在达兰的设施、阿美在利雅得的炼油厂以及首都利雅得的哈立德国王国际机场。

沙特阿拉伯能源部昨夜证实，位于达兰的沙特阿美公司行政大楼遭到袭击。

半岛电视台记者泽因·巴斯拉维从卡塔尔首都多哈报道称，过去 10 天里，沙特阿拉伯境内多个目标遭到袭击，任何认为沙特领导的联军能够将冲突控制在也门范围内的想法都已破灭。

胡塞武装周末袭击了利雅得的哈立德国王国际机场，造成14人死亡，300多人受伤。据报道，胡塞武装还袭击了其他机场，包括艾卜哈国际机场（造成两人死亡）和沙特阿美石油公司的设施。

与此同时，沙特支持的也门政府军在也门发动反攻，从胡塞武装手中夺回位于红海入口处曼德海峡附近的沿海领土，曼德海峡是重要的海上贸易咽喉要道。

上个月，也门境内由伊朗支持的胡塞武装和沙特阿拉伯支持的也门政府军之间的战斗急剧升级，打破了自 2022 年以来基本维持的由联合国斡旋的停火协议。

自 2014 年占领首都萨那以来，胡塞武装一直控制着也门人口最稠密的地区，迫使国际社会承认的也门政府逃往也门南部。

世界穆斯林联盟周三谴责胡塞武装持续袭击沙特阿拉伯，称其蓄意袭击平民和民用设施。联盟秘书长谢赫·穆罕默德·本·阿卜杜勒卡里姆·伊萨表示，这些袭击的性质证实了“这支恐怖武装蓄意袭击平民和民用基础设施的犯罪行径”。

与此同时，也门胡塞武装控制的马西拉电视台报道称，该国马里卜省哈里卜区遭到四次空袭。袭击结果尚不清楚。

伦敦国王学院安全与情报分析师兼高级研究员纳瓦夫·奥贝德告诉半岛电视台，虽然空袭正在加剧，但对于沙特领导的联军来说，“真正的地面战争还没有真正开始”。

奥贝德详细分析了此类行动可能分阶段展开的过程，他说第一阶段“基本上是打击胡塞武装赖以运作的动力和能源……坦克、装甲车、卡车”。

他说，第二阶段将着眼于“胡塞武装在该地区系统性地加强控制，这至关重要”。

第三阶段将讨论如何“开始收复胡塞武装自战争开始以来占领的这些领土”。

奥贝德表示，这些“多管齐下的阶段”将包括“特别专业化”的部队，尤其是在山地作战方面，因为胡塞武装正在将战场转移到地形复杂的地区。