Air Defense & Missiles Middle East News Security

Saudi-Led Coalition Says It Destroyed Five Houthi Missile Tunnels and Four Launchers After Missile Fired at Riyadh

The Saudi-led coalition said on Monday 26 October 2026 that it had destroyed five tunnels used to store ballistic missiles, four ballistic missile launchers and a missile store in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, hours after Saudi air defences intercepted a ballistic missile fired at Riyadh. The figures come from a statement by coalition spokesman Major General Turki Al-Malki, also carried by the Saudi Press Agency. They have not been independently verified.

What the coalition said

Al-Malki described the action as a “qualitative operation” carried out by the coalition’s Joint Forces Command in self-defence, in response to repeated Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and on Yemen. Besides the tunnels, launchers and missile store, he said the operation aimed to cut Houthi supply lines between areas under the group’s control and hit Houthi fortifications, fighters and equipment along the front lines inside Yemen. The statement did not name locations, give casualty figures or say what weapons were used, and it said the coalition would continue what it called deterrent operations.

Earlier in the night the coalition said it had destroyed two ballistic missile launchers in Sanaa and that one of them had been used to fire the missile at Riyadh. The later statement does not say whether those two launchers are among the four it lists.

The Riyadh interception

Saudi Civil Defence issued an early-warning alert for Riyadh at about 03:43 local time (00:43 GMT) and declared the danger over roughly ten minutes later. At 04:07 the coalition said air defences had intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis towards the capital. No damage or injuries were reported. The Interior Ministry repeated its warning that filming or sharing information about interceptions and impact sites exposes people to legal liability.

What the Houthis claim

At about 05:23 Sanaa time, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed that the group had hit King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile and attacked crude oil pumping stations on the East-West pipeline with drones. Saudi Arabia has not reported any impact at the airport or on the pipeline. Half an hour later Saree claimed two more ballistic missile operations against what he called Saudi-backed troop concentrations and weapons stores in the Salah al-Din area of Aden and in Al-Waht in Lahj, saying they killed and wounded dozens. That claim is also unverified.

Missiles near camps for displaced people in Aden

Yemen’s internationally recognised government gave a different account of the Aden strikes. Information Minister Muammar al-Eryani said on Sunday evening that two Houthi missiles had landed near camps for internally displaced people in Salah al-Din. The Information Ministry later said three ballistic missiles had been fired at a displacement camp in Ras Imran, in Al-Buraiqa district west of Aden, but gave no figures for casualties or damage, Anadolu Agency reported. Local sources told the agency that another missile had come down in an uninhabited area of Bir Ahmed earlier on Sunday without causing casualties.

Previous developments

The overnight exchange follows a day in which the coalition said it intercepted a ballistic missile aimed at Riyadh, a cruise missile aimed at Khamis Mushait and ten ballistic missiles fired towards southern Saudi Arabia, and Civil Defence said debris injured two people in Khamis Mushait and Ahad Rafidah. On Sunday evening the Houthis claimed missile strikes on Riyadh airport, King Khalid Air Base and a Border Guard base in Jazan, which Saudi Arabia has not confirmed. Our running account of Houthi attacks on Saudi airports sets out what Riyadh has confirmed since early October.

Classification: OFFICIAL (coalition statement; figures for destroyed targets not independently verified). Houthi and Yemeni government statements are reported as claims. DefenceMENA will update this report.

Sources

This article in other editionsLire en français Ler em português

Topics :

Adrian Cole Administrator All articles

Africa defence and security correspondent at DefenceMENA, covering procurement, defence industry and armed forces across the continent.

408 Post