The Saudi-led military coalition said on Thursday that Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis struck an electricity distribution station in Medina, one of Islam's two holiest cities, drawing condemnation from across the Muslim world. The Houthis deny involvement.
Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki said a drone hit the Taibah distribution station early on Tuesday, September 29. He said an investigation and the wreckage of the drone confirmed Houthi responsibility. One transformer was taken out of service, but the wider electricity network was not affected. The coalition said the station supplies power to the Prophet's Mosque, which stands in the city where the Prophet Mohammed is buried. It described the attack as part of repeated attempts to target the Two Holy Mosques, in Mecca and Medina, and to provoke Muslims worldwide.
A Houthi military source, quoted by the Houthi-run Saba news agency, called the accusation a "lie" meant to cover up what he described as Saudi Arabia's failure to substantiate an earlier claim that the group targeted Mecca. Riyadh said two weeks ago that it had shot down a Houthi drone south of Mecca before it entered the city's restricted airspace. The coalition called that the second such attempt since 2017. The Houthis say they have not targeted Mecca or any other Islamic holy site.
Reaction was swift. Turkey condemned what it called an attack on civilian infrastructure and demanded that such "provocative attacks" stop immediately and unconditionally. Qatar called it a grave assault on the sanctity of Islamic holy sites and a violation of international law. The Arab League described it as an unacceptable transgression, while Al-Azhar, the Cairo-based centre of Sunni Islamic learning, and the Gulf Cooperation Council's secretary general, Jasem Albudaiwi, also denounced it.
The accusation came as fighting intensified inside Yemen. Journalists from AFP heard loud explosions in Sanaa, the Houthi-held capital, on Thursday evening. The internationally recognised Yemeni government's military said it carried out a "high-value targeting operation" in Sanaa, struck 11 targets in Saada in the north, and conducted dozens of air strikes on Houthi positions around Taiz. Houthi media described the strikes as Saudi aggression. The coalition also said it intercepted two ballistic missiles and four drones over Jazan and Khamis Mushait in southern Saudi Arabia.
The current escalation is the most serious between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis since a UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted cross-border attacks. Fighting resumed this year after the Houthis declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in July and began attacking Saudi territory and shipping. They have also made major gains along Yemen's Red Sea coast, including control of the Bab al-Mandab strait since September 11.
The Yemeni government has separately warned the UN Security Council that Iranian-origin weapons used by the Houthis threaten civil aviation over the southern Red Sea. The Houthis have not commented on that claim. Attacks involving Islam's holy cities are rare, which is why this incident carries particular weight for the wider region.