Medina missile: Houthis deny Saudi attack claim

Yemen's Houthis denied carrying out any attack on Saudi Arabia's Medina region on Thursday after the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed a cruise missile there.

“Interception and destruction of a cruise missile in the Medina region,” coalition spokesman Turki Al-Malki wrote on X. The statement was also published by Saudi state media.

The Houthis quickly denied responsibility. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on X that the group had not carried out any operation targeting Saudi territory on Thursday and called the Saudi claim a lie.

Medina is the burial place of the Prophet Mohammed and is one of Islam's holiest cities, alongside Mecca. The Houthis had said on Sunday that Mecca and Medina would be spared, while vowing to continue targeting airports and other sites across Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has come under recent attacks from the Houthis, including a strike on Riyadh's international airport that was the kingdom's deadliest in years. Riyadh has responded with strikes against the Iran-backed group's stronghold in Yemen's capital, Sanaa.

On Wednesday, the Houthis said they had targeted facilities belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco. Saudi officials reported a strike on a building in an area housing the company's operations centre.

The Saudi-led coalition has supported Yemen's government militarily against the Houthis since 2015 in a long-running civil war that has created a humanitarian crisis. Responsibility for the Medina-region missile claim remains unclear from the available information.