The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen continued attacking targets in Saudi Arabia on Monday, prompting Saudi authorities to issue civil defense alerts in several southern cities — including, for the first time, the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
“The National Early Warning Platform for Emergencies issued the alert, according to the Saudi Civil Defense, without specifying the nature of the danger. It urged residents to avoid crowded and open areas and seek immediate shelter indoors,” independent news site Al-Monitor reported from Mecca on Tuesday.
“The Civil Defense later said the danger had passed, calling on residents to continue avoiding gatherings and filming or taking photos,” the report said.
Alerts were also sounded in the Saudi city of Jeddah, where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has been holding cabinet meetings and coordinating the war effort. MBS met with U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Adm. Bradley Cooper in Jeddah on Monday.
Confirmed Houthi attacks were reported in the cities of Khamis Mushayt, Abha, and Taif on Monday. The Houthis said they launched dozens of missiles and drones at aircraft hangars, radar systems, runways, and ammunition depots in the airbase at Khamis Mushayt. Saudi officials said at least 13 civilians were injured by the attacks.
Saudi military spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki condemned the Houthis for their “heinous and deliberate attacks” on civilians and vowed to take “all necessary operational measures” to prevent further attacks.
Officials with the Saudi-backed, internationally-recognized government of Yemen said on Monday that Saudi and Yemeni warplanes bombed Houthi positions around the Red Sea coastal cities captured by the insurgents in their swift offensive over the weekend.
“The Houthis are being put under heavy pressure. They in turn are putting more and more pressure on the Saudis, increasing their campaign of missile and drone attacks,” said a Yemeni government official.
Yemeni officials claimed they made significant advances against the Houthis on Monday, recapturing several strategic positions in Taiz province, although they have yet to dislodge the Houthis from any of the cities they have captured.
A Houthi official said on Tuesday that three civilians were killed by Saudi airstrikes, including two children, in the Taiz province of Yemen. Independent news sources could not verify the claim.
The Houthis said Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government launched at least 54 air raids on Monday, many of them using F-15 and Typhoon jet fighters launched from the airbase at Khamis Mushayt. Saudi officials did not confirm the number of strikes launched, or their targets.
MBS traveled to Egypt on Tuesday for a meeting with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Saudi media said their talks would “address a variety of issues of mutual interest between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.”
The Saudi leader reportedly asked President Donald Trump for military assistance against the Houthis, but Trump declined to commit U.S. air or ground forces in Yemen, and Adm. Cooper offered only intelligence-sharing on Monday.
The Saudis next turned to Pakistan, which signed a trilateral defense agreement with Saudi Arabia and Turkey known as the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement in August. Pakistan warned Iran that it might intervene to protect the Saudis if Houthi attacks continue, but the warning was ignored by both the Iranians and Houthis. Pakistan has yet to take any concrete action and there has been no report of the Saudis formally invoking the mutual defense clause of the Mecca agreement.
Egypt’s Al-Ahram news service noted that Houthi attacks on Saudi oil facilities and the vital East-West Pipeline, coupled with a Houthi blockade of Saudi oil shipments through the Red Sea, have almost completely shut down Saudi Arabia’s efforts to ship oil through the Red Sea to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.
According to Al-Ahram, “Red Sea security, the Bab El-Mandeb Strait, Yemen, and regional de-escalation received greater emphasis than trade and investment” during the discussions between MBS and Sisi.
The Egyptians seem interested in protecting the Suez Canal and its Mediterranean trade routes against terrorist actors like the Houthis and Iranians, although they have so far been reluctant to confront the Iranian axis directly. Al-Ahram noted that Egypt recently upgraded its Suez Canal infrastructure and held joint air and naval exercises with Greece.
The lingering question is whether Egypt would use force to prevent the Houthis from blocking traffic from the Red Sea through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait into the Suez Canal as the insurgents are now positioned to do.
Sisi said on Monday that Egypt supports Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arab states, and stated his “complete rejection and condemnation” of attacks that threaten Saudi sovereignty. Sisi also called for the restoration of free and safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea.