Nine years after the militant group Houthis attempted to target Mecca with a ballistic missile, the Saudi Arabian air defences thwarted another attack on the holy city on Tuesday. Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said it destroyed a Houthi drone south of Mecca before it entered the prohibited airspace.
Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki said in a statement that the security of Mecca, the home to some of the holiest sites in Islam and the focal point of the annual hajj pilgrimage, was a red line. Houthi officials, however, have rejected the claim. “The claims about targeting Mecca are a worn-out lie that has been used before and no longer fools anyone,” Hazem al-Assad from the Houthis’ politburo writes on X.
But the attack put Saudi authorities on their toes. According to local media reports, as pilgrims prepared for another day of worship in Mecca, their phones buzzed with urgent warning messages from the national alert system. The messages urged everyone to remain calm, stay away from windows and doors, and stay in safe areas after detecting a "hostile threat."
Thousands of pilgrims and visitors in the Holy Mosque in Mecca had no choice but to wait for the danger to pass. Less than 15 minutes later, the system announced that the danger had passed and life had returned to normal, thanks to the exceptional vigilance of the military.
Recently, a pro-Iranian movement had knocked out one of
the kingdom's most important oil transport routes, the East-West
Pipeline across the Arabian desert. The 1,200-km (745-mile) East-West Pipeline linking Saudi Arabia's Gulf oil fields to the Red Sea has been the kingdom's principal export route.
The series of attacks has also prompted the US State Department to issue a travel alert for Saudi Arabia to Level 3, "Travel Consideration." The US State Department cited the reason as the risk of targeting US interests in Saudi Arabia by Iranian missiles and drones.
The department also announced that some areas of Saudi Arabia are at increased risk and urged American citizens to read the full travel warning before traveling. In this warning, the Saudi Arabian border region with Yemen is at Level 4, "Do Not Travel."
