Saudi coalition says intercepted Houthi missiles, drones

The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Houthis said on Thursday that its forces intercepted two ballistic missiles and four drones fired by the Iran-backed group at the kingdom.

The coalition said on X it "intercepted and destroyed" the missiles and drones over the southern Saudi city of Jazan, near energy and oil facilities already targeted in recent weeks, and Khamis Mushait, a city in the country's southwest that is home to an airbase.

It blamed the attacks on "the Houthi terrorist militia".

The Saudi Civil Defence said debris that fell after a ballistic missile was intercepted in Khamis Mushait province resulted in "limited material damage".

The missiles and drones were the latest in a series of Houthi attacks since July, when renewed hostilities shattered a years-long truce and embroiled Yemen in the wider Middle East war.

Yemen is one of the poorest in the world and remains gripped by a vast humanitarian crisis.

Fighting intensified in September as the Houthis launched a lightning offensive that saw them seize Yemen's entire Red Sea coast, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital shipping lane.

The Houthis have in parallel launched a blockade on Saudi energy exports, already choked off by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Yemen's war erupted in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa from the Saudi-backed government, before going on to take control of vast swathes of the country's north.

Riyadh intervened in the war the following year at the head of an international coalition.