Saudi coalition claims to have destroyed Houthi drone targeting Mecca

The Saudi-led military coalition said on Wednesday it had destroyed a drone launched by Yemen's pro-Iranian Houthi rebels towards the holy city of Mecca. “On Tuesday, September 15, 2026, the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces successfully intercepted and destroyed a hostile drone launched by the Houthi terrorist militia before it entered the prohibited airspace of the holy capital,” the coalition wrote in a statement. “The drone was intercepted south of the city of Mecca,” she said. Coalition spokesperson General Turki Al-Maliki denounced in the statement “desperate attempts by the militia and its allies to disrupt security and stability and endanger the guests of the Holy Mosque, citizens and residents.”

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) immediately condemned “the hateful attacks” against the holy city of Mecca. The OIC “condemns the heinous attacks perpetrated by the Houthi group against the city of Mecca and the Medina region, as well as its continued aggression against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” writes the international organization. These attacks “desecrate the sacredness of holy places and mosques, and offend the feelings of Muslims across the world,” she added.

This version was quickly denied by the pro-Iranian Houthi rebels in Yemen. “The accusations regarding the alleged targeting of Mecca are a hackneyed lie, already used before, which no longer fools anyone,” wrote a Houthi official, Hazm al-Assad, on X.

“52 airstrikes”

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia briefly issued air alerts in several regions in the south of the country, near the border with Yemen, including one for Mecca, a first since the start of the regional conflict.

Yemen, a neighboring country of Saudi Arabia, was drawn into this conflict in July triggered by the American-Israeli offensive against Iran at the end of February. At the beginning of September, the Houthis launched a major offensive and seized the entire Yemeni coastline overlooking the Red Sea, including the Bab el-Mandeb Strait controlling this strategic axis for maritime traffic.

The military spokesperson for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, for his part affirmed that the Saudi armed forces had carried out over the last 24 hours “52 airstrikes” targeting “civilian infrastructure” in several governorates, and promised that they would not remain “unanswered”.