The Houthis respond to the coalition's announcement of intercepting a march in the skies over Mecca

The Houthi group in Yemen announced that it did not carry out, today, Friday, any operation towards the Saudi rear, in response to what the “Coalition to Support Legitimacy” in Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia, announced that a drone had been intercepted in the airspace of the city of Mecca. The Houthis said in a statement, "What the Saudi enemy claims to intercept a march in the skies over Mecca is a great and major slander," according to what was reported by the Yemeni "Saba" agency, in its version loyal to the Houthis.

The official spokesman for the Houthi militants, Yahya Saree, said, “The operations of the Yemeni armed forces target the enemy’s Saudi oil installations and military bases, and there is no longer anyone in this world who believes these slanders and lies..”, as he put it. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen had announced the interception and destruction of a drone launched by the Houthis, in the Mecca region, according to what coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki announced on Friday.

Since the escalation began weeks ago, the coalition has repeatedly announced that it had shot down drones in Mecca, but the Iran-backed Houthi group denied targeting the holy city for Muslims around the world.