Saudi Arabia thwarts Huthi missile attack on Mecca

CAIRO – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Huthi movement targeted an arms depot at Najran airport in Saudi Arabia which caused a fire to break out in the facility, the group's Al Masirah TV said on Tuesday.

Earlier the Saudi-led military coalition said a civilian facility in Saudi Arabia’s province of Najran was targeted with a drone carrying explosives.

It did not mention casualties.

On Monday, Huthis denied Saudi media reports that it had fired a ballistic missile toward Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, at a time of heightened tensions between Tehran and Gulf Arab states allied to Washington.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are leading a Western-backed coalition of Sunni Muslim states that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognised government ousted from power in Sanaa by the Huthis in late 2014.