RIYADH — Two ballistic missiles fired by the Houthi militia in Yemen toward Riyadh were shot down by Saudi Arabia's air defences on Thursday, the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen said on Thursday evening, in a statement reported by Arab News. The missiles were "intercepted and destroyed," the coalition said.
Source: Arab News via Scoop
One person was injured in Riyadh after the interceptions, Arab News reported in an updated report. Saudi Arabia's Civil Defence had earlier issued warnings of potential danger through the National Early Warning Platform for Riyadh, Al-Kharj governorate and the southern city of Najran, and a mobile phone alert warned that the capital was under a "hostile aerial threat," AFP reported, adding that its correspondents in Riyadh heard at least eight explosions.
Source: AFP via Pakistan TV live blog
Coalition spokesperson Major General Turki Al Maliki announced the interception, Qatar's state news agency QNA reported. Earlier on Thursday, the coalition had also intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis toward Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province — a separate attack reported earlier today.
Source: QNA via Fana News
A near-daily campaign over the kingdom
Saudi Arabia has come under sustained attack from the Iran-aligned Houthis this month, including repeated missile launches at Riyadh, Taif and the oil-rich Eastern Province, and officials have not yet said whether falling debris from Thursday evening's interceptions caused further damage in the capital. The Houthis had not issued a specific claim for Thursday evening's Riyadh launch in the reports available at publication time, and any such claim should be treated as an allegation until independently verified.
For the lakhs of Indian and Punjabi workers who live in Riyadh and across the Gulf, the repeated alerts are a direct safety concern: civil defence messages urge residents to follow official instructions and stay away from windows during warnings. What happens next depends on whether the near-daily launches continue and how the coalition responds in Yemen.