Houthis deny drone was aimed at Mecca

• This comes after the Saudi-led military coalition announced that its air defense systems had intercepted and destroyed a drone on a trajectory toward Mecca's airspace.

Yemen's Houthi group rejected on Wednesday Saudi Arabia's claim that one of its drones attempted to strike the holy city of Mecca, dismissing the allegation as fabricated propaganda.

Hizam al-Asad, a member of the Houthi political bureau, pushed back forcefully against Riyadh's account, calling it an attempt to manipulate public opinion that no longer carries any weight.

"Claims of targeting venerable Mecca are a nauseating lie that has been consumed before and no longer fools anyone," al-Asad wrote in a post on X.

بيانٌ صادرٌ عنِ القواتِ المسلحةِ اليمنيةِ
بسمِ اللهِ الرحمنِ الرحيمِ
قالَ تعالى: { یَـٰۤأَیُّهَا ٱلَّذِینَ ءَامَنُوۤا۟ إِن تَنصُرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ یَنصُرۡكُمۡ وَیُثَبِّتۡ أَقۡدَامَكُمۡ } صدقَ اللهُ العظيم
شنَّ الطيرانُ الحربيُّ السعوديُّ خلالَ هذا الأسبوعِ أكثرَ من 450 غارةٍ جويةٍ من…

— حزام الأسد (@hezamalasad) September 16, 2026

The denial came after the Saudi-led military coalition announced that its air defense systems had intercepted and destroyed a drone on a trajectory toward Mecca's airspace.

 In a statement issued at 21:50 GMT, the coalition said the unmanned aircraft was brought down before it could breach the airspace surrounding the holy city.

The coalition framed the incident as a deliberate provocation, describing it as "this hostile and terrorist attempt" and noting it marked only the second time an attack had allegedly been aimed at Mecca. 

The first, it said, came via a ballistic missile launched on July 27, 2017.

The exchange fits a familiar pattern in the long-running conflict: Saudi Arabia has repeatedly accused the Iran-aligned Houthis of targeting the kingdom's most sensitive religious sites, while the group has just as consistently denied any such intent, arguing that Riyadh uses these claims to rally international sympathy against it.