Saudi coalition reports drone interception near Mecca, Houthi rebels deny attack

On the evening of September 15, 2026, the Saudi-led military coalition, which has been intervening in the Yemen war since 2015 to support the internationally recognized government, reported an attempted drone strike targeting the holy city of Mecca. Coalition spokesperson Colonel Turki al-Maliki stated that royal air defense forces successfully intercepted and destroyed a hostile drone south of the city at 18:50 local time, preventing it from entering prohibited airspace.

The coalition condemned the incident, labeling the Houthi movement—a pro-Iranian Shiite group also known as Ansar Allah—as a paramilitary terrorist organization for endangering pilgrims and civilians. In response, Hazem al-Asad, a member of the Ansar Allah political bureau, denied the allegations on the social media platform X. He dismissed the report as a trivial lie used in the past, asserting that such claims no longer deceive anyone.

This incident adds to the ongoing tensions stemming from the multi-year conflict in Yemen. While the coalition maintains that the drone was a deliberate act of hostility, the Houthi leadership consistently refutes such accusations, framing them as propaganda tactics within the broader geopolitical struggle between the Saudi-led alliance and the rebel forces.