The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis has accused the Iran-aligned group of carrying out a drone attack on an electricity distribution station in Medina that supplies power to the Prophet’s Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites. The coalition said the strike took place on Tuesday, September 29, at the Taibah electricity distribution station and knocked one transformer out of service. However, it said the wider electricity network was not affected and there was no broader disruption to power supplies in the city. The accusation came amid a sharp escalation in fighting between Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and the Houthis, with both sides reporting military activity in Yemen. The Houthis have denied targeting Medina or other Islamic holy sites.

Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki said the drone struck the Taibah electricity distribution station at 5:11 am local time on September 29. According to the coalition, an investigation conducted after the attack, including an operational review and examination of debris recovered from the drone, confirmed what Saudi authorities described as Houthi involvement in planning and carrying out the strike. Al-Maliki said the facility was civilian infrastructure that provides electricity to the Prophet’s Mosque. He described the incident as part of what Saudi authorities characterised as repeated attempts by the Houthis to target the two Islamic holy cities, Mecca and Medina. The coalition said it would continue taking measures to protect the holy sites and visitors.

The Houthis rejected the Saudi-led coalition’s accusation. A Houthi military source, quoted by the group’s Saba news agency, called the claim a “lie” and denied that the movement had targeted Medina or any other Islamic holy site. The source also linked the accusation to an earlier Saudi claim involving Mecca, saying Riyadh was attempting to divert attention from what the Houthis described as a failure to substantiate that allegation. Saudi Arabia said last month that it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone south of Mecca before it entered restricted airspace over the holy city. The coalition described that incident as another attempted attack, while the Houthis denied targeting Mecca.

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The latest incident has drawn reactions from several Muslim-majority countries because of Medina’s religious significance. Medina is the burial place of Prophet Mohammed and home to the Prophet’s Mosque, also known as Masjid an-Nabawi, making it one of Islam’s holiest cities alongside Mecca. Türkiye condemned what it described as an attack on civilian infrastructure in Medina and called for such attacks to stop. Sudan also expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia and backed efforts to protect the kingdom’s security and Islamic holy sites. The reactions came as Saudi Arabia and the Houthis remained locked in a wider confrontation that has periodically involved missile and drone attacks across the Saudi-Yemeni border.

The Medina accusation came as fighting intensified inside Yemen. Saudi-backed forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government said they were engaged in heavy clashes with Houthi fighters in Taiz province. Yemeni government forces reported fighting on several fronts and claimed to have inflicted significant casualties on Houthi fighters, while Saudi-led coalition aircraft were also reported to have carried out strikes against Houthi positions. The Houthis, meanwhile, reported Saudi strikes on Sanaa and other areas of Yemen. Reuters reported that there was no immediate Saudi confirmation of those Houthi claims. The competing accounts underline the intensity of the latest escalation, with battlefield reports from the conflict zones difficult to independently verify.

The latest confrontation represents a serious escalation in the long-running Saudi-Houthi conflict, which has roots in Yemen’s civil war and has previously involved cross-border missile and drone attacks. A UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted such attacks for a period, but tensions have risen again this year. Reuters reported that the Houthis resumed attacks on Saudi territory and shipping after declaring a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in July, while Houthi forces also made territorial gains along Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Saudi Arabia has responded with airstrikes and continued support for the internationally recognised Yemeni government. Against that backdrop, the Medina incident has added a highly sensitive religious dimension to the confrontation. While Saudi authorities have cited drone wreckage and their investigation as evidence of Houthi responsibility, the group continues to deny involvement, leaving the competing claims at the centre of the dispute.

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