Sounds of explosions were heard on Saturday in the Yemeni city of Aden, which the internationally recognized government is temporarily based in, according to what a security source and a journalist at Agence France-Presse said.
An Aden police official told Agence France-Presse that he heard three explosions in the city, which was confirmed by the agency's correspondent.
Another police source said that the Ansar Allah group in Yemen targeted a site belonging to the Saudi-led coalition near Aden Airport, which was attacked last week, in addition to a Coast Guard site.
Al-Masirah Channel quoted the director of a local health authority affiliated with the Ansar Allah group in Yemen, saying that seven people were killed as a result of Saudi Arabia’s targeting of a cement factory in the Hamdan District in Sana’a Governorate. They are “six women and a girl,” and “two women and a child” were injured, pointing out that the targeting included the factory’s “workers’ residence.”
The group's "Al-Masirah" also reported that four people were killed and others wounded when Saudi Arabia targeted a house in the Asr area, west of the city of Sana'a.
The channel said that Riyadh launched a "series of raids" on the Yemeni capital.
Al-Masirah indicated that the Kingdom launched “about 20 raids on Mokha since this morning” on Saturday.
Coalition spokesman Turki Al-Maliki announced on the X platform: “We intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the terrorist Houthi militia towards the cities of Taif and Yanbu.”
The Saudi Civil Defense issued an alert on Saturday to “warn of danger” to residents of the governorates of Jeddah, Taif, Yanbu, and the Makkah Al-Mukarramah region, then lifted it minutes later, at a time when attacks by the Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthis have continued on the Kingdom since the beginning of the month.
The Saudi Civil Defense called on residents to remain calm and stay inside.
The coalition had previously announced that it had intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis towards Riyadh at dawn on Saturday, while Agence France-Presse reported that two explosions were heard in the Saudi capital.
The developments coincided with international warnings of the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Yemeni city of Taiz, and European and regional calls to contain the escalation through dialogue.
The coalition announced the interception of the missile heading towards Riyadh, after it had announced the interception and destruction of a drone in the eastern region, according to statements reported by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Coalition spokesman Turki Al-Maliki said in a post on the X platform, “A drone was intercepted and destroyed in the eastern region.”
An Agence France-Presse journalist reported hearing two explosions in Riyadh early Saturday, without the information received specifying the cause of the sounds.
The Saudi Civil Defense had issued warnings of a potential danger in Riyadh, Najran, and Wadi Al-Dawasir Governorate, and activated the early warning system to alert residents, before announcing that the danger had passed in the three regions.
These developments come in light of repeated attacks on Saudi Arabia during October, which Riyadh attributes to the Iran-backed Ansar Allah group.
According to Agence France-Presse, the group has previously repeatedly denied Saudi accusations of launching missiles and drones towards the Kingdom. The news received did not include a comment on the announcement of the interception of the missile and drone at dawn on Saturday.
Tehran denied any connection to the Ansar Allah group's attacks on Saudi Arabia, after Riyadh accused it of encouraging the group to escalate against the Kingdom, according to Agence France-Presse.
In a previous development, the Emirati airline Etihad Airways extended the suspension of its flights to and from Riyadh and Dammam until November 5, according to a statement it issued on Thursday, the details of which were reported by Agence France-Presse on Friday.
The company attributed the decision to "operational disturbances" and said that it would operate only daytime flights to Jeddah, while canceling night flights until the same time.
On the diplomatic level, the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Egypt met in Istanbul on Friday to discuss regional developments, including Yemen, the attacks on Saudi Arabia, and the situation in the Straits of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that the participating countries do not want the war to expand, and that they see “diplomacy and dialogue as the only way forward.”
His French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, warned that a new escalation between Iran and the United States would have severe repercussions on oil and gas prices, calling on both parties to exercise the utmost restraint.
In Yemen, the United Nations warned on Friday that time is running out to deliver aid to Taiz, the third largest city in the country, which has been besieged by Ansar Allah forces since the beginning of October, according to Agence France-Presse.
The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, reported that it examined more than 168,000 children in Taiz during the current year, and it was found that more than 52,000 of them suffer from acute malnutrition, including more than 11,500 children who suffer from the most severe forms of acute malnutrition.
Fighting renewed in Yemen in July, after a fragile truce that lasted for four years, according to Agence France-Presse, amid the repercussions of the conflict between the United States and Iran on the region.
