Saudi air defenses shot down a Houthi drone south of Mecca before it could enter restricted airspace over the holy city, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said Wednesday, as conflict continues to spread across the Middle East.
The drone was intercepted Tuesday evening, marking the second reported Houthi attempt to target Mecca after a ballistic missile launch in July 2017, coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki said. The incident follows a week of attacks by Iran-aligned Houthi fighters that have pulled Saudi Arabia more deeply into the conflict.
Mecca contains some of Islam’s holiest sites and serves as the destination for the annual hajj pilgrimage. In his statement, al-Malki said protecting the city remained a “red line.”
Houthi officials have rejected the accusation that the group targeted Mecca.
The strikes against Saudi Arabia have unsettled global energy markets, already under pressure from the six-month US-Iran war, which has reduced shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to a trickle.
In recent days, the Houthis have taken control of sections of Yemen’s Red Sea coast overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb, one of the world’s key shipping chokepoints. Their advances threaten Saudi oil exports that have been rerouted away from the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia issued security alerts for Mecca on Tuesday. However, Mohammed al-Farah, a member of the Houthi political bureau, denied that the group had targeted the city, describing the claim as “an outright lie” in remarks carried by the Houthi-run SABA news agency.
The Houthis have claimed responsibility for several major attacks on Saudi Arabia over the past week, including a strike on an air base Monday that they said was retaliation for Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen.
The air base attack injured 13 civilians, according to officials from the Saudi-led military coalition.
Saudi Arabia has separately accused a pro-Iranian group based in Iraq of carrying out Friday’s attack on the East-West Pipeline, one of the kingdom’s most important oil transportation routes across the Arabian Peninsula.
Stretching 745 miles from Saudi Arabia’s Gulf oil fields to the Red Sea, the East-West Pipeline has served as the kingdom’s main export route while fighting has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The conflict, which has lasted nearly seven months, has killed thousands across the region.
Traders warn that a prolonged shutdown of the pipeline could remove as much as 4% of the world’s oil supply from the market.
Saudi Arabia has not announced when pipeline operations will resume.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Tuesday, however, that crude oil was expected to begin flowing through the pipeline within days.
Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting the Houthis since 2015.
The conflict had largely quieted under a ceasefire in recent years, but reignited when the Houthis pushed back forces aligned with the Yemeni government this month.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman phoned US President Donald Trump last week seeking military support, which so far has been limited to intelligence aid.
