France’s President Emmanuel Macron, flanked by Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani (L) and the Emir of Qatar (unseen), attends the 9th Annual One Planet Sovereign Wealth Funds (OPSWF) Summit at the Rosewood Hotel in Lusail on October 21, 2026
| Photo Credit: AFP

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday (October 17, 2026) that it had intercepted a fresh wave of incoming drones, as its ally Egypt weighed sending the kingdom help in defending against repeated attacks from Yemen’s Houthis.

Riyadh leads a military coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government in its war with the Houthis, and a military spokesman for the Iran-backed group said on Saturday (October 17, 20260 that dozens of Saudi strikes over the past day had killed and wounded “numerous” people.

Since Yemen’s conflict flared back to life in July after a years-long hiatus, Saudi Arabia has faced sustained Houthi missile and drone attacks targeting its oil installations, tankers and transit hubs, including one on Riyadh’s airport last week that killed 13 people.

A spokesman for the Saudi coalition said on Saturday (October 17, 2026) that it had “intercepted and destroyed four drones over the past few hours in the regions of Riyadh, the Eastern Province, and the South”.

The interceptions came as the President of Egypt, which is also a member of the coalition, said he was willing to “carry out any measure to protect” Saudi Arabia if its leaders requested it.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Egypt was not looking to intervene in regional wars, but added that it was “inconceivable” for Cairo to stand by while the kingdom was “harmed or its security and stability threatened”.

“I’m not talking about fighting anyone or attacking anyone,” he said. “We are speaking only about defence.”

Though Egypt is a member of the anti-Houthi coalition, its role has mostly concerned Red Sea maritime security rather than the fighting in Yemen.

It and Saudi Arabia are historically close and have strategic economic ties.

Egypt’s parliament will hold an emergency session on Sunday (October 18, 2026) at Mr. Sisi’s request.

The repeated Houthi strikes have prompted foreign embassies to warn their citizens not to use Saudi airports, or not to visit the country altogether.

The Saudi Education Ministry on Saturday (October 17, 2026) announced the extension of remote learning measures for students in Riyadh and nearby Diriyah.

Residents of the Saudi capital received a mobile phone alert early on Sunday (October 18, 2026) warning of a “hostile aerial threat” and to stay away from windows and doors. It was lifted after a few minutes.

‘Political process’

Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of encouraging the Houthis’ recent escalation, a charge Tehran denies.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday (October 17, 2026) that Tehran supported a “comprehensive political process as the only practical and sustainable way to resolve” the conflict on the Arabian Peninsula.

He also repeated Iran’s offer to mediate between the two sides.

Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh previously said Riyadh has not responded to Iran’s overture.

But Yemeni Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba rejected Iran’s offer in a statement on X on Saturday (October 17, 2026), saying “the Tehran regime is a party to the war against Yemenis, not a mediator”.

The Houthis are part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” against Israel and the United States, but both they and Tehran insist the group acts independently.

Saudi Arabia has carried out daily airstrikes on the Houthis in Yemen, where government forces are seeking to roll back gains the group made in a lightning offensive in September.

On Saturday (October 17, 2026), Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said Riyadh had conducted 53 strikes in the capital Sanaa and six other provinces over the past 24 hours, causing “numerous dead and wounded”.

A Houthi-affiliated news agency had earlier accused Saudi warplanes of targeting “civilian residences” in Dhamar and Taiz provinces, killing 12 people and wounding more than 30.

It alleged that the strikes were carried out “using cluster bombs, which are banned internationally”.

Published – October 18, 2026 08:57 am IST

The match between Al Ahli and Ronaldo’s Al Nassr has been rescheduled for March 6, 2027. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Iran-backed Houthis said on Monday (October 5, 2026) they had struck Riyadh’s international airport, an oil refinery and other sites in Saudi Arabia, as the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said they had destroyed Houthi targets on the Red Sea coast.

Pakistan and Turkiye have pledged to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia under a new mutual defence pact following weeks of Houthi attacks, as Riyadh and its Yemeni government allies began an ambitious push aimed at retaking all territory held by the group.

The fighting in Yemen has become the most active front in the West Asia war in recent weeks, displacing more than 1,84,000 people, the United Nations says, and deepening the conflict that has engulfed the wider region.

The Houthis previously controlled much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and the western city of Hodeida, but seized swathes of coastline last month along the Red Sea and key Bab al-Mandab Strait, in Yemen’s deadliest fighting in years.

The Houthis have also been attacking neighbouring Saudi Arabia since Yemen’s civil war flared back to life and have declared a maritime blockade on its ships.

The Yemeni military said it carried out more than 1,000 strikes and began an offensive against Sanaa, while the Saudi-led coalition supporting the internationally recognised government said 100 warplanes flew sorties at dawn.

Turki Al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said on X that its naval forces had hit “military targets” belonging to the Houthis in Hodeida on the Red Sea coast.

They “destroyed weapons depots, facilities storing booby-trapped boats and naval mines” and had “thwarted a planned attack” targeting waterways in the southern Red Sea, he said.

Later, the military said it had driven the Houthis from the area surrounding the Bab al-Mandeb Strait — a vital route for maritime traffic — including the port city of Mocha, Dhubab airport and Al-Omari military camp.

They also said they expelled the Houthis from several areas in Taiz in the southwest, where deadly fighting has surged in recent days.

Military sources stopped short of confirming an official announcement of Mocha’s recapture, saying that pro-government forces had cut off the only supply route to the port.

UN ‘deeply concerned’

Loud explosions rattled the Saudi capital on Monday (October 5, 2026) evening, with a Houthi spokesman saying the group had hit King Khalid International Airport, a refinery belonging to state oil giant Aramco and other targets in the kingdom’s south.

It came a day after Yemen’s government announced the lofty goal of retaking all Houthi territory — home to most of the country’s population, and much of it held for more than a decade.

Representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkiye held an emergency meeting in Riyadh on Monday (September 5, 2026) under the auspices of a joint defence agreement signed in August committing them to come to each other’s aid in the event of any attack.

They also agreed “to take the necessary measures to provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment in the Kingdom”.

The statement did not specify what role the troops would fill once in Saudi Arabia.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned by the sharp escalation in fighting”, and condemned “the continued Houthi cross-border attacks” on Saudi Arabia.

Houthi attacks have repeatedly targeted Saudi oil infrastructure, as well as its tankers in the Red Sea.

A source in the Saudi energy sector told AFP that an attack on Sunday (October 4, 2026) had again halted pumping by the East-West pipeline to the Red Sea, a key conduit for the kingdom’s exports since Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the wider West Asia war.

Crude prices had already been soaring as a result of the West Asia war before the Houthis began targeting the world’s largest oil exporter.

Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser warned on Monday (October 5, 2026) that global oil stockpiles were “scarily thin” owing to the war.

“The system is already straining,” Mr. Nasser told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London.

Published – October 06, 2026 12:10 pm IST

Smoke rises from what is said to be an explosion near Ras al-Arah, Lahj Governorate, Yemen, in this screen grab from a social media video filmed from a car with the flag of former South Yemen visible, released on September 11, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Social Media/via Reuters

Smoke rises during Houthi missile and drone strikes on the Red Sea port city of Mocha, Yemen, on August 9, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Washington:

American and British forces carried out a fresh wave of strikes Saturday against 18 Huthi targets in Yemen, a joint statement said, following weeks of unrelenting attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebels.

The strikes “specifically targeted 18 Huthi targets across eight locations in Yemen associated with Houthi underground weapons storage facilities, missile storage facilities, one-way attack unmanned aerial systems, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter,” said the joint statement.

The statement was co-signed by Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand, who gave unspecified “support” to the new round of strikes, the second this month and fourth since the rebels began their attacks on ships in the region.

“The Huthis’ now more than 45 attacks on commercial and naval vessels since mid-November constitute a threat to the global economy, as well as regional security and stability, and demand an international response,” the statement said.

Saturday’s operation comes after several merchant vessels were struck this week in the region, including the fertilizer-filled Rubymar, whose crew had to abandon ship after it was hit Sunday and began taking on water.

Apart from the joint operations with Britain, the United States has also carried out repeated unilateral strikes against Huthi positions and weaponry in Yemen, claiming self-defense, and has downed air and sea-borne drones in the Red Sea.

“The United States will not hesitate to take action, as needed, to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways,” Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement after the strikes.

“We will continue to make clear to the Huthis that they will bear the consequences if they do not stop their illegal attacks, which harm Middle Eastern economies, cause environmental damage, and disrupt the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen and other countries.”

The Huthis say they are targeting Israel-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war.

Following previous US and UK strikes, the Huthis declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.

Anger over Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza — which began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 — has grown across the Middle East, stoking violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)