Saudi strikes kill 11 in Yemen as Houthi missiles target Saudi cities

Houthi media reported that Saudi strikes killed 11 people in Yemeni capital Sanaa on Saturday, shortly after the Saudi-led coalition fighting them said it had intercepted two missiles targeting Saudi cities.

The Houthis’ Al-Masirah outlet reported a series of “Saudi enemy air strikes” targeting Sanaa, including one on a house that killed at least four people and wounded several others.

A separate strike at a residence building for cement factory workers in the Sanaa governorate killed six women and one child and wounded three others, the broadcaster said.

Yemen’s civil war, pitting the Iran-backed Houthis against the Saudi-supported and internationally recognised government, had been dormant since a ceasefire in 2022, but erupted again in July as the wider Middle East war roiled the region.

The strikes in Yemen came after the Saudi-led coalition announced it had intercepted two missiles fired by the Houthis towards Taif and Yanbu, in the kingdom’s west.

Earlier, Riyadh’s civil defence agency broadcast warnings of “potential danger” for four western regions, including Taif and Yanbu as well Mecca, home to Islam’s holiest city, and Yanbu.

The alerts were all rescinded minutes later.

Residents were instructed to “proceed to the nearest safe place” by the agency. It also repeated a legal warning against sharing images or information related to “countering missiles and drones”.

Diplomats evacuated

The Gulf kingdom has come under repeated attack from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis in recent weeks as part of the latter country’s revived civil war.

The group has targeted the kingdom’s oil infrastructure as well as its airports.

Yanbu is a major oil export hub on the Red Sea coast that has allowed Riyadh to bypass Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz for much of its crude exports.

An attack on Riyadh airport earlier this month killed 13 people and wounded dozens more, while this week the US ordered non-essential embassy staff and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, citing the Houthi threat.

Riyadh leads a military coalition that first intervened in the conflict, which has devastated Yemen and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, in 2015.

The dramatic escalation in Yemen, with the Houthis taking control of the entire Red Sea coast in a lightning offensive last month, has further destabilised the region and disrupted oil markets.

Egypt has suggested sending troops to help defend Saudi Arabia, while Britain and France have offered their forces to protect the Gulf kingdom.