Saudi says one killed, 2 injured from debris of intercepted Houthi drone

The Saudi civil defence said Thursday that debris from an intercepted Houthi drone has killed one person and injured two others.

One Yemeni was killed, and a Saudi citizen and a Pakistani national were injured in Taif province in the western part of the country, officials said. The debris also damaged vehicles and buildings, according to the civil defense.

The statement didn’t give details on when exactly this happened.

The update comes amid an ongoing escalation between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen. Government forces have launched attacks against Houthi rebels along the Red Sea and Houthis have fired into neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen’s government.

An image shows damage following a reported Houthi drone attack over Taif in Saui Arabia. . AFP

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia accused the Houthis of trying to attack Makkah, Islam's holiest city, with a drone.

The Houthis denied targeting Makkah, and in a social media post in Thursday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said that a claim of intercepting a drone shouldn’t be turned into an accusation of any specific party or to escalate tensions.

The growing tensions are impacting the Iran war, too, especially since Houthis captured the port city of Mokha and an island on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

Associated Press