A safety alert has been issued in Islam’s holiest metropolis.
Saudi Arabia has mentioned {that a} drone launched by the Houthis in direction of Mecca has been intercepted and destroyed, in an escalation that would threaten the holy metropolis.
The Saudi-led coalition spokesperson, Turki al-Maliki, mentioned Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces intercepted the hostile drone earlier than it entered the restricted airspace on Tuesday night.
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Al-Maliki condemned the incident as an try to frighten worshippers and hurt civilians, warning that the safety of the 2 holy mosques and pilgrims is a “pink line”.
The Houthis have beforehand denied concentrating on Mecca, saying that they don’t goal holy websites.
Safety alerts
Saudi Arabia issued a safety alert on Tuesday within the holy metropolis of Mecca for the primary time because the Houthis final tried to focus on the sacred space in 2017.
The alert of potential hazard in Mecca was swiftly lifted after a couple of minutes. The identical alert was activated for Taif and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second-largest metropolis.
In a press release to Yemen’s SABA information company on Tuesday, a Houthi navy supply strongly rejected the declare that Houthi forces pose a menace to the town of Mecca or different Islamic holy websites.
“We categorically deny that there’s any menace from Yemen directed on the metropolis of Mecca or another holy websites,” the supply mentioned, condemning what he described as “misinformation”.
The newest assaults mark a pointy resurgence in a battle relationship to 2015, when Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen after the Houthis seized Sanaa and ousted the internationally recognised authorities.
A UN-brokered truce in April 2022 largely halted Houthi assaults on Saudi territory, however hostilities have escalated once more because the group declared a blockade on Saudi delivery in July and gained management of vital nodes on the nation’s Bab al-Mandeb shoreline.
In early September, the Iran-aligned group launched missiles and drones at websites throughout Saudi Arabia, marking a drastic escalation within the preventing. Riyadh has accused the Houthi rebels of launching assaults on civilian and financial websites within the kingdom.
The Saudi-led coalition mentioned it should reply “firmly” to Houthi strikes on city areas that injured 13 individuals within the Saudi cities of Khamis Mushait, Abha and Taif on Tuesday.
Why is the alert on Mecca vital?
This was the primary time in practically a decade {that a} safety alert had been activated in Mecca.
Mecca is house to the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest web site. Two billion Muslims around the globe face the Kaaba throughout their every day prayers.
This yr, Saudi Arabia welcomed round 1.7 million Muslims for the Hajj season in late Could, whereas the nation was susceptible to direct strikes.
Hajj is taken into account one of many 5 pillars of Islam, mandatory for Muslims to fulfil as soon as of their lifetime.
All year long, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims journey to Mecca to carry out the optionally available Umrah pilgrimage.
Final autumn, Mecca welcomed greater than 11.7 million pilgrims for Umrah between September and October 2025.
Hajj has solely been restricted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when Saudi Arabia barred overseas Muslims from performing the pilgrimage to assist forestall the unfold of the virus.
It stays to be seen if the assaults on Saudi Arabia will have an effect on pilgrimage to Mecca.
