CAIRO (AP) — The Saudi civil defense said Thursday that debris from an intercepted Houthi drone has killed one person and injured two others.
One Yemeni was killed, and a Saudi citizen and a Pakistani national were injured in Taif province in the western part of the country, officials said. The debris also damaged vehicles and buildings, according to the civil defense.
The statement didn’t give details on when exactly this happened.
The update comes amid an ongoing escalation between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen. Government forces have launched attacks against Houthi rebels along the Red Sea and Houthis have fired into neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen’s government.
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia accused the Houthis of trying to attack Mecca, Islam's holiest city, with a drone. The Houthis denied targeting Mecca, and in a social media post in Thursday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said that a claim of intercepting a drone shouldn’t be turned into an accusation of any specific party or to escalate tensions. He also condemned attacks on Islamic holy sites.
The Houthis claimed Wednesday that they shot down an F-15 fighter jet operated by the Saudi-backed coalition over Yemen’s central province of Marib, though they didn’t say when it happened.
In a video released by the rebel group’s media channels, Houthi fighters were shown gathering around what they described as the wreckage of an F-15 emblazoned with a Saudi flag. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.
Spokespeople for the Saudi-led coalition and the Saudi government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Saudi Arabia has so far seemed reluctant to unleash a major military campaign against the Houthis, wary of bringing greater Houthi attacks on its oil infrastructure and being dragged back into an all-out civil war in Yemen, its southern neighbor.
But as Houthi attacks continue, the kingdom faces a potential decision about whether to step up its military response or seek a diplomatic solution. Regional officials have recently suggested that Saudi Arabia is running low on missile interceptors and has turned to regional and Western allies for assistance.
The growing tensions are impacting the Iran war, too, especially since Houthis captured the port city of Mokha and an island on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz. That is adding pressure on global oil supplies and prices.
Container ships and oil tankers continued to transit the Bab el-Mandeb strait after the Houthis said they are only targeting Saudi-linked vessels, according to shipping analytical firm Windward. But the blockade of Saudi vessels disrupted a crucial workaround for oil exports bottled up by Iran’s chokehold over Hormuz.
The renewed fighting in Yemen has displaced more than 125,000 people who have fled, many with only what they could carry, as the Houthis have advanced down the Red Sea coast. Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, was pushed to the brink of famine in an earlier phase of the civil war, which killed an estimated 150,000 people.
