Yemen's Houthis on Wednesday denied launching drones toward Medina, after the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed four drones over Medina and Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province — putting two flatly contradictory accounts of the same morning in front of the world, over one of Islam's holiest cities.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had neither launched drones towards the Saudi holy city of Medina on Wednesday nor conducted military operations towards Saudi Arabia, according to Reuters. The coalition had announced earlier on Wednesday that its forces intercepted and destroyed four drones in the airspace of Medina and the Eastern region.
The denial matters because of where the drones were said to be heading. The Houthis had already warned airlines earlier this month against using Saudi airspace, raising fears for commercial flights — but in that warning they exempted the airspace of Mecca and Medina, Islam's two holiest cities. A Houthi attack toward Medina would cross a line the group itself drew, which is precisely what Saree's denial is built to reject.
The Houthis "had neither launched drones towards the Saudi holy city of Medina on Wednesday nor conducted military operations towards Saudi Arabia." — Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree, as reported by Reuters
Nobody is disputing that the wider war has restarted in earnest. Houthi attacks on Riyadh's airport and on Saudi Aramco facilities have disrupted flights and oil exports in recent weeks, and on Monday a Houthi missile strike on a government security forces training camp in Yemen's Shabwa province killed 73 people. On Wednesday the Houthis did claim an attack — on a military camp near Aden's airport, according to a government source and a local official speaking to Reuters — and a Yemeni official said the group also attacked Riyan airport in Mukalla with drones and missiles the same day.
The renewed fighting has torn up what remained of the 2022 United Nations-brokered truce, in a war that began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and that has killed tens of thousands of people and driven what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. This week Yemen's central bank froze the assets of 135 people and entities it linked to the Houthis, adding financial pressure to the military kind.
So the region is left with a claim and a denial that cannot both be true: the coalition says four drones were intercepted over Medina and the Eastern Province, and the Houthis say they launched none. Over Medina, of all places — "neither launched drones towards Medina nor conducted military operations towards Saudi Arabia," Saree said.