Medina power station hit in drone attack, Saudi coalition blames houthis

The Saudi-led coalition has accused Yemen’s Houthi group of carrying out a drone attack on a power distribution station in the holy city of Medina, while the Houthis have rejected the allegation as fabricated.

The attack on Tuesday damaged one transformer at the facility, which supplies electricity to the Prophet’s Mosque, but the wider power network remained operational, according to the coalition. An investigation and examination of the drone debris, it said, confirmed Houthi involvement in planning and carrying out the attack.

The coalition said the incident was part of what it described as repeated Houthi attempts to target the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. The Houthis denied the accusation, with a military official quoted by the group’s Saba news agency calling it a “lie” and saying Saudi Arabia had failed to substantiate an earlier claim that the group targeted Mecca.

The escalation continued on Thursday, with the coalition saying it intercepted and destroyed four Houthi drones over Khamis Mushait and two ballistic missiles over Khamis Mushait and Jazan.

Meanwhile, fighting has intensified inside Yemen. Forces aligned with the internationally recognised government said they repelled Houthi attacks on several fronts in Taiz province and claimed at least 30 Houthi fighters were killed on the al-Aqrud front. The claims could not be independently verified.

The renewed fighting is also worsening Yemen’s displacement crisis. Government figures showed 197,906 internally displaced people from 29,519 families were registered as of Wednesday, with more than 97,000 sheltering in Taiz and over 50,000 in Lahij.