Four alerts in the west

On Saturday, 24 October, Saudi Civil Defence issued four alerts for 'potential danger' in the western part of the kingdom, covering Mecca, Jeddah, Taif and Yanbu, the Red Sea oil terminal. Residents were told to move to the nearest shelter. Authorities did not say why, and the agency lifted the alerts within minutes, saying the danger had passed. Deutsche Welle reported that the civil defence also repeated a legal warning against publishing images or information about the interception of missiles and drones.

Missiles and a drone

The Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted two missiles fired by the Houthis toward Taif and Yanbu since Saturday morning, according to Le Monde. Separately, it reported intercepting a ballistic missile launched toward Riyadh. 20minutes reported two explosions heard in Riyadh early that morning and said an early warning system had been activated in the capital. Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said on X that a drone had also been intercepted and shot down in the eastern province.

A widening air campaign

Since early October the Iran-backed Houthis have multiplied strikes on Saudi Arabia, and one hit Riyadh's international airport, the deadliest attack in the kingdom in years, according to 20minutes. The Houthis say they do not target the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and have repeatedly denied strikes that Riyadh attributed to them. Le Monde reported on the same day that Saudi forces launched deadly airstrikes on Sanaa, the Houthi-controlled capital. The available text does not give casualty figures for those strikes.

Background to the war

Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition in Yemen since 2015, backing the Yemeni government against the Houthis, who had seized Sanaa a year after the war began. A truce reached in 2022 largely quieted the fighting, but clashes flared again in July as the wider Middle East conflict escalated, including the confrontation between the United States and Iran. Deutsche Welle describes the Yemen war as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.