Photo: Capt. Aaron Smith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Multiple explosions were heard in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday afternoon as Saudi air defenses intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched toward the city by Yemen's Houthi militia, the Saudi-led coalition said. Residents received text-message alerts on their phones warning of an "aerial threat" and instructing them to seek shelter, according to Agence France-Presse journalists in the capital.
The coalition's spokesman announced the interception in a statement shared on social media. No further details were immediately provided about casualties or damage, and the coalition did not say where exactly the missiles were intercepted.
A second wave of attacks in one day
The Riyadh interception was the second round of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, the coalition said it had intercepted three ballistic missiles fired toward the kingdom's Eastern Province and four drones launched toward its Southern Region, with civil defense alerts issued in the Eastern Region and Kharj governorate before authorities said the danger had passed.
The attacks are part of a sharp escalation in recent days. On Monday, the coalition said it intercepted a ballistic missile fired at Riyadh and destroyed two launchers in the Houthi-held Yemeni capital Sanaa, including one used in that attack. On Sunday, it said it had intercepted 10 ballistic missiles fired toward Saudi Arabia's southern region.
A claimed strike on Ras Tanura — and a fire the Saudis contained
Hours before the Riyadh interception, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed the group had struck Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura refinery in the Eastern Province with a ballistic missile and that fires had erupted at the site. That claim has not been independently verified.
Separately, Bloomberg reported, citing a person with knowledge of the matter, that Saudi Arabia contained a fire near its biggest oil export terminal at Ras Tanura in the early hours of Tuesday, near facilities operated by state producer Saudi Aramco. The extent of any damage was not immediately clear. The two accounts — a claimed missile strike and a contained fire near the terminal — have not been officially linked by Riyadh.
Diplomacy running alongside the missiles
The strikes came a day after a rare diplomatic opening. On Monday, senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan held talks with Iranian officials in Tehran aimed at easing tensions in the Middle East, with the visiting countries saying they wanted to prevent a return to military escalation. On Tuesday, Qatar's ruler and Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian met in Moscow on the sidelines of a gas exporters' summit and discussed the war, the blockaded Strait of Hormuz and energy supplies, according to statements from the Qatari emir's office carried by AFP. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman later chaired a cabinet meeting in Riyadh that reviewed the substance of the Tehran talks, Saudi state media reported.
Iran's national security chief Mohsen Rezaei also met Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Tuesday to discuss regional security and the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media said. The flurry of meetings underlines how the diplomacy and the fighting are now moving in parallel: talks in one capital, air-raid alerts in another.
What to watch next
The immediate questions are whether the Houthis keep firing at Riyadh and the Eastern Province despite the Tehran talks, whether the Saudi-led coalition answers with further strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen, and whether the Moscow and Tehran diplomatic tracks can produce anything that actually stops the missiles. Oil markets reflected the same tension on Tuesday, with Brent crude falling sharply from recent highs as hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough competed with fears of further attacks on Saudi infrastructure.
Sources: Agence France-Presse via Dawn's live coverage and Gulf News; Reuters; Bloomberg via Dawn. The Riyadh interception, the explosions and the shelter alerts are reported by AFP; the Ras Tanura strike is a Houthi claim, not a verified fact, and the fire near the terminal is reported by Bloomberg citing an unnamed source.