RIYADH – Saudi-led coalition air defences shot down a Houthi ballistic missile aimed at Riyadh early on Sunday and later reported destroying 10 more ballistic missiles fired toward southern Saudi Arabia, while Saudi Civil Defence said debris from two intercepted missiles injured two people in the south.
Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki said on X that air defences intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched toward the capital. Saudi authorities issued an alert for a hostile aerial threat in Riyadh and lifted it minutes later, Al Arabiya reported. Explosions were heard in the capital, Al Jazeera reported.
Al-Maliki also said forces destroyed a cruise missile aimed at Khamis Mushait in the southwest. Accounts differ on the drones: Al Jazeera reported one drone intercepted in the Riyadh region, while CNBC, citing the Saudi Press Agency, reported two drones and a ballistic missile intercepted as they headed toward Riyadh. Eastern Herald could not reconcile the two counts.
The coalition later announced that it had intercepted and destroyed 10 ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis toward the southern region. Al-Maliki gave no details about injuries or damage in that statement, The Express Tribune reported.
Saudi Civil Defence then said two Houthi ballistic missiles had been intercepted and destroyed on Sunday, with debris falling in Khamis Mushait and Ahad Rafidah. A Saudi citizen and an Asian resident were injured, and three residential buildings and seven vehicles were damaged, according to the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency, EconoTimes reported.
Civil Defence did not describe the conditions of the injured or say which missile’s debris fell where. The releases also did not say whether those two missiles were among the 10 ballistic missiles the coalition announced. All figures here come from Saudi and coalition statements and have not been independently verified.
The Houthis’ own account of Sunday’s launches was not in the reports reviewed by Eastern Herald. The group’s claims of Saturday attacks on airports and Aramco sites concern the previous day’s events, not the Sunday interceptions described here.
Still unanswered are the condition of the two injured people, how the debris was distributed among the missiles, whether other damage was recorded, and what the Houthis say they launched on Sunday.
