RIYADH: Saudi Arabia confirmed that debris from two ballistic missiles intercepted by its air defense forces fell in the Mecca region on Wednesday, as military exchanges between the Kingdom and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia continue to escalate.
Saudi state television identified the locations where the fragments landed as Sabuhah village, situated approximately 35 kilometres (22 miles) northeast of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and Wadi al-Maghmas, located about 21 kilometres east of the holy site.
According to an official statement issued by Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence, the incoming missiles targeted the region before being successfully intercepted and destroyed in mid-air.
The Houthi militia has repeatedly denied Saudi allegations regarding attacks aimed at Mecca and Medina, Islam’s two holiest cities, asserting that their military operations exclusively target strategic and military assets elsewhere within Saudi Arabia.
Mecca, which houses the most sacred sites for Muslims worldwide, serves as the focal destination for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, one of the fundamental pillars of Islam that draws millions of worshippers each year.
“This hostile targeting of civilian objects constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and reflects the dangerous hostile approach pursued by the Houthi militia,” the Saudi Civil Defence authority stated early on Thursday.
The protracted conflict originated in 2014 when Houthi forces seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene militarily the following year in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government.
Although a UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022 had largely halted major combat operations, active hostilities flared up again earlier this year. The escalation has seen renewed Houthi missile and drone strikes directed at Saudi territory alongside retaliatory Saudi airstrikes in Yemen, raising security concerns across the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
For more details: Navamalayalam.com