Yemen's Houthis on Wednesday said they shot down a Saudi fighter jet, claiming they used munitions made by the group to target the warplane. "The Yemeni Armed Forces, with Allah's aid and grace, succeeded in shooting down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet while it was carrying out hostile operations," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on social media, while accusing Saudi Arabia of launching 450 strikes. He said the aircraft had been targeted "using a locally made air-to-air missile".
The spokesman also dismissed Saudi claims that the Houthis had targeted Islam's holy city of Mecca. "Our operations target its oil facilities and military bases, which are far removed from the sacred sites," he said, adding that "fabrications and lies propagated by the criminal al-Saud regime cannot deceive anyone." The Saudi coalition vowed retaliation, warning that the security of holy sites was a "red line". "The security of the Two Holy Mosques and the pilgrims is a red line, and the Joint Forces Command of the Coalition will not hesitate to take the necessary and deterrent measures against the terrorist Houthi militia," the coalition said in a statement shared by spokesman Turki al-Maliki on X.
Saudi Arabia had issued brief alerts on Tuesday over possible attacks in Mecca and across swathes of the kingdom's south, which borders Yemen. The alerts, including the first one issued in Mecca since the Iran war erupted in February, came a day after a wave of ballistic missile and drone attacks launched from Yemen wounded 13 people in the kingdom's south. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned on Wednesday "in the strongest possible terms the dastardly and heinous" attack on Mecca.
"The people of Pakistan are saddened and perturbed by this outrageous act," he said on X. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-member bloc of Muslim-majority countries, also condemned the "heinous" attack. The Houthis are Zaydi Shia Muslims, a specific branch of Islam historically rooted in northern Yemen that is theologically distinct from both the Twelver Shia Islam dominant in Iran and Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi-influenced Sunni tradition.
Mecca is Islam's holiest site, home to the Kaaba — which Muslims worldwide turn toward for prayer — and the destination of the Hajj pilgrimage, one of the faith's Five Pillars or main tenets. Any confirmed attack on the city would put the perpetrators beyond the pale in the eyes of virtually the entire Muslim world, Shia and Sunni alike. Formally known as Ansar Allah, the Houthis have been engaged in renewed fighting with the internationally recognised government forces since Yemen's civil war reignited in July.
The fighting in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country has forced 82,000 people to flee their homes since the start of September, according to the UN. Yemen's permanent representative at the UN Abdullah al-Saadi said his compatriots were fighting to restore "national institutions across every inch of their land", and called on the international community to take action against the Houthis. The group has also declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia and has been targeting its ships in the Red Sea.
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