Saudi Coalition Intercepts Five Drones Launched by Yemen's Houthis From Sana'a

Saudi air defenses intercepted several explosives-laden drones launched by Yemen's Houthi movement and targeting the country's border region with Yemen, Saudi state television reported late on Monday.

The drones were reportedly launched from near Sana'a, the Yemeni capital controlled by the rebel Houthi movement. They reportedly followed intercepts of three other drones the day prior.

“We are monitoring the sources of the threat to destroy and neutralize them,” the Saudi military said, according to Arab News. “Operational options are on the table in response to the threat and deterring the hostile behavior of the Houthi militia."

The Saudi Royal Air Force has pounded Sana'a and the Houthi front lines in Ma'rib Governorate for months, part of a yearslong campaign to block the Zaidi Shiite movement from seizing the entire country from the control of Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Recent airstrikes in Sana'a late last month, which the Riyadh-led coalition said targeted munitions and drones used to target the kingdom, caused a massive explosion and several fires.

The Saudi and Emirati air forces have enjoyed near-total air supremacy since the war began in 2015, but in recent years the Houthis have mounted near-daily strikes into Saudi Arabia itself, targeting military bases and civilian infrastructure, such as the petroleum facilities essential to the Saudi economy, with drones and ballistic missiles.

The United Arab Emirates has mostly pulled out of the war, and the United States claims to have ended its support for Saudi offensive operations in Yemen. However, Washington continues to sell the Saudi monarchy air defense weaponry, enabling it to better fend off Houthi attacks and continue to prosecute its bombing campaign with minimal consequences on the home front.

The bombing campaign has destroyed Yemen's already-fragile infrastructure, and combined with a Saudi blockade of the country, it has created what the United Nations referred to as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. UN estimates from late November put the war’s death toll at 377,000, the majority of whom have died from noncombat causes such as famine, diseases like cholera and COVID-19, a lack of access to adequate food, water, or medicine, and other infrastructure-related causes.