Saudi Coalition Calls Houthi Riyadh Attack Claim Misleading

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen has dismissed Houthi claims of an attack on the Saudi capital as “misleading,” according to Al Jazeera and Asharq Al-Awsat.

Major General Turki Al-Malki, a spokesman for the coalition, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Houthis were “attempting to divert attention from the scale of the losses and the growing public anger against them.” Al Jazeera carried the same remarks in its Iran war live blog on Sunday.

What the coalition said

“What the Houthis are facing in Taiz, and the human losses suffered by the group’s members at the hands of the heroes of the Yemeni Armed Forces and the Popular Resistance on all fronts drives them to seek illusory victories,” Al-Malki said, according to Asharq Al-Awsat and Al Jazeera.

Al Arabiya English reported on Sunday that Al-Malki’s comments, first carried Saturday night, rejected claims by the Iran-backed militia that it had targeted Riyadh. Asharq Al-Awsat also quoted him stressing the group’s “ties to external agendas that have brought chaos and devastation to Yemen.”

Houthi claim and Aramco facility

As Al Jazeera noted, the Houthis earlier claimed a ballistic missile and drone attack on an Aramco oil facility near Riyadh and said the assault caused large fires. An AFP journalist had reported seeing flames and smoke at an Aramco site south of the capital on Saturday, while Saudi authorities had not immediately confirmed an attack when those first accounts emerged.

The dispute comes as fighting between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces and the Houthis has intensified around Taiz and other fronts, and as the wider US-Israel war on Iran continues to spill into Red Sea and Gulf security dynamics.

Yemen front context

Asharq Al-Awsat linked Al-Malki’s remarks to recent Yemeni military claims of heavy Houthi casualties and precision strikes across multiple provinces. Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Colonel Majid Al-Nuzaili, cited by Asharq Al-Awsat, said government-aligned forces had carried out large numbers of targeting operations against Houthi positions, movements and supply lines. Those battlefield claims have not been independently verified by Al Jazeera or Western wire services in the same detail.

Al-Malki’s statement does not confirm or deny every detail of Saturday’s reported fire near Riyadh. It does, according to Asharq Al-Awsat, Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, frame the Houthi’s public claim as propaganda meant to offset losses inside Yemen.

The Candor Post will continue to follow official Saudi, coalition and Houthi statements as the regional spillover from the Iran war evolves.