Published: 12:10 AM, 17 September 2026
Saudi says Houthis target Mecca, warns of 'red line'
Saudi Arabia says it shot down a Houthi drone close to the holy city of Mecca. -Reuters
Saudi Arabia has claimed its air defences intercepted and destroyed a ?Houthi drone attempting to fly over the holy city of Mecca, as Saudi warplanes continued to pound Yemen, raising fears of the conflict spreading further across the Middle East.
The Saudi-led military coalition said the security of Mecca - home to Islam's two holiest sites - was a "red line" and that it would take necessary measures against the ?Houthis, The Guardian reports.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have been attacking Saudi Arabian territory, oil pipelines and shipping but denied targeting Mecca. "The claims about targeting Mecca are a worn-out lie that has been used before and no longer fools anyone," said the spokesperson Hazem al-Assad.
Violence continued to spread in the aftermath of the Houthis' significant territorial gains in Yemen last week. On Wednesday, the Houthis claimed that Saudi warplanes were carrying out intensive airstrikes on Yemen, with the group's military spokesperson saying as many as 450 airstrikes had been carried out this week.
The group claimed to have shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet. Riyadh has yet to comment.
The Houthis have seized control of parts of ?Yemen's Red Sea coast overlooking the Bab al-Mandab, one of the world's most important shipping waterways, threatening Saudi oil exports rerouted from the strait of Hormuz. The Houthis have also taken control of highly strategic islands in the Bab al-Mandab strait.
The rebel group has fired repeatedly into Saudi Arabia over the past week, causing alarms over cities in the south and west, and Saudi Arabia issued security alerts across parts of the country on Tuesday, including in Mecca.
The conflict has already led to a severe disruption in oil supplies. Last week, an attack blamed on Iran-aligned fighters in Iraq knocked out Saudi Arabia's east-west pipeline, the main route used to divert exports away from the blockaded strait of Hormuz.
The escalating attacks on Saudi Arabia have fuelled fears that more Muslim nations could be drawn into the violence spreading across the Middle East. In August, a defence pact - referred to as the Mecca joint defence agreement - was signed between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, which declared that any attack against one country would be "regarded as an attack against them all".
On Wednesday, the Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, joined the condemnation of the drone attack on Mecca and said his country and the Saudis stand "unwaveringly, shoulder to shoulder". Pakistan has already deployed its forces and military aircraft to airbases in Saudi Arabia under a previous joint defence agreement.
However, ministers from Pakistan and Turkey said they had not received a request from Riyadh for support in response to the Houthis' escalation. Pakistan and Turkey have emphasised that the Mecca pact is still not fully operational and that further efforts were needed to "institutionalise" the alliance
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation also condemned what they called a "heinous" attack on Islam's holy city, blaming the Houthis. The group - which is made up of 57 Muslim-majority countries - decried the "ongoing aggression against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia".
Saudi Arabia has ?led a coalition battling the Houthis since 2015. The conflict had largely quietened under a ceasefire in recent years, but reignited when the Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in July and fired at southern areas in the kingdom, and significantly escalated this month.
The US also indicated a lack of desire to get involved in the conflict. "The Houthis called us, and they don't want to fight with us," the US president, Donald Trump, said on Saturday.
On Wednesday, the US tightened its travel warning for Saudi Arabia, banning government employees from travelling within 20 miles of the Yemen border.
