Saudi Arabia said its air defence forces intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone south of Mecca on Tuesday before it could enter restricted airspace over Islam’s holiest city, prompting Riyadh to warn that the protection of the holy sites and pilgrims remained a “red line”.
Turki al-Malki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, said early Wednesday that the kingdom would take whatever deterrent measures it considered necessary in response to threats from the group.
Mecca holds Islam’s most sacred sites and is the centre of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, which draws millions of Muslims and constitutes one of the five pillars of Islam.
According to Malki, Tuesday’s incident represented the second attempt by the Houthis to target Mecca. The Saudi-led coalition previously accused the group of launching a ballistic missile towards the holy city in July 2017.
The Houthis, however, rejected the latest Saudi allegation. Houthi spokesperson Hazem al-Assad denied that the group had attempted to strike Mecca, describing the accusation as a repeated claim that had been used against the movement in the past.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation condemned the incident, describing it as a “heinous” attack against Islam’s holy city and blaming the Houthis. The 57-member organisation also denounced what it described as continuing aggression against Saudi Arabia.
The incident came amid heightened security concerns across the kingdom. Saudi authorities issued alerts in Mecca and several other cities on Tuesday following a week of attacks attributed to Iran-aligned armed groups, developments that have drawn the kingdom more deeply into the wider Middle East conflict.
The United States embassy subsequently advised travellers to reconsider travel to Saudi Arabia amid concerns over drone and missile attacks, armed conflict and terrorism. It also maintained its warning against travel to the Saudi-Yemen border because of security threats.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have expanded their territorial control along parts of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world’s most strategically important maritime routes. Their advances have raised additional concerns for Saudi oil shipments that have been redirected away from the Strait of Hormuz.
The group has also claimed responsibility for several attacks against Saudi Arabia during the past week. These included strikes against an airbase on Monday, which the Houthis said were carried out in retaliation for airstrikes on Yemen.
The latest incident therefore adds another layer of tension to an already expanding regional confrontation, with the security of Saudi territory, critical shipping routes and the holy city of Mecca increasingly becoming part of the wider conflict.
