Houthis deny launching drone toward Mecca region after Saudi-led coalition reports interception
Sanaa, Oct 30
Yemen's Houthi group denied launching any attacks against Saudi Arabia on Friday, after the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted a Houthi drone over the Mecca region.
In a statement posted on the social media platform X, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea rejected a Saudi claim that a drone had been intercepted over Mecca, calling it "false", Xinhua news agency reported. Sarea said the group carried out "no operations toward Saudi territory" on Friday.
The response came after Saudi-led coalition spokesperson Turki Al-Maliki wrote on X earlier in the day that a drone launched by the Houthi group was intercepted and destroyed in the Mecca region, home to Islam's holiest city.
Recent weeks have seen escalating cross-border hostilities between the two sides, with Saudi strikes hitting Houthi-held areas in Yemen and the Houthis launching missiles and drones toward Saudi Arabia.
Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 in support of the Yemeni government.
In September, Yemen's Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi had rejected accusations that his group had attempted to attack the Islamic holy city of Mecca, calling the allegation "fabrication and misinformation" amid escalating hostilities with Saudi Arabia.
In a televised address carried by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV, al-Houthi said claims that Houthi forces had targeted Mecca were a "lie," arguing that the accusation was being used to mobilize broader support for what he described as "military measures imposed on Yemen."
Al-Houthi also accused Saudi Arabia of failing to advance a political settlement during the period of relative calm preceding the latest escalation.
Instead, he said, restrictions affecting Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen had been tightened, with limitations on airport operations and imports remaining among the key unresolved issues.
His remarks had come a day after Saudi Arabia publicly accused the Houthis of launching a drone toward Mecca. The Saudi-led coalition said that the Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces intercepted and destroyed the drone south of Mecca, before it entered the holy city's restricted airspace.
Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki described the security of Islam's two holiest sites and pilgrims as a "red line" and said necessary measures would be taken in response. He said the incident was the second alleged Houthi attempt to target Mecca, following what the coalition described as a ballistic missile attack on July 27, 2017.
— IANS
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