Tehran has denied involvement in the Houthi attacks after Saudi Arabia accused Iran of encouraging the group to escalate its campaign against the kingdom.
BSS
24 October, 2026, 11:20 am
Last modified: 24 October, 2026, 11:25 am
The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Houthis said on Saturday (24 October) that it had intercepted a ballistic missile launched towards Riyadh by the Iran-backed group.
Two explosions rang out in Riyadh early on Saturday, an AFP journalist in the Saudi capital said, as the Houthis continued their strikes on the kingdom.
An early warning system was activated to alert residents to a potential threat, Saudi civil defence said.
"Air defences intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi terrorist militia towards Riyadh," coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki posted on X.
A drone was also intercepted in the country's Eastern Province, al-Malki said in an earlier post on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia has come under sustained attack from the Iran-backed group this month, including a strike on Riyadh's international airport that was the country's deadliest in years.
Tehran has denied involvement in the Houthi attacks after Saudi Arabia accused Iran of encouraging the group to escalate its campaign against the kingdom.
After an uneasy four-year truce, fighting reignited in Yemen in July, months into the US-Iran conflict, which has plunged the wider region into crisis.
The conflict in Yemen has killed hundreds of thousands of people in one of the world's poorest countries, which was already facing a severe humanitarian crisis.