CAIRO, Oct 30 (Reuters) – The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said early on Saturday that it intercepted and destroyed a drone over Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Region as attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis group continue.
Cross-border fighting involving the Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government, and the Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa, has intensified amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, opening another front in the conflict.
The Eastern Region, which is the economic powerhouse of Saudi Arabia, has been subject to multiple attacks by Houthis in the past few weeks. It contains the majority of the kingdom’s oil and gas reserves and is home to oil giant Saudi Aramco’s headquarters, which suffered extensive damage in an attack earlier in October.
The coalition also said it later intercepted and destroyed a drone that was launched by Houthis toward the Southern Region.
The Saudi coalition had also said on Friday that it had intercepted and destroyed a drone launched by Yemen’s Houthis over Saudi Arabia’s Medina region, but the Iran-aligned group denied any Friday attack.
Medina is home to one of Islam’s holiest sites and is visited by millions of Muslim pilgrims each year.
The Houthis have repeatedly denied targeting Mecca and Medina, Islam’s two holiest cities, rejecting Saudi accusations that it had launched drones towards the cities.
(Reporting by Enas Alashray and Ahmed Tolba and Menna Alaa El-Din; Editing by Tom Hogue)
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