Massive Houthi barrage targets Saudi cities from Riyadh to Dammam

Yemen’s Houthis launched a large-scale missile and drone attack on Saudi Arabia on Sunday, targeting Riyadh, the oil-rich Eastern Province and the southern border region.

In the capital, the Aramco tower in the King Abdullah Financial District was damaged, witnesses said.

Air raid alerts sounded in Riyadh and Najran, and in the Eastern Province cities of Dammam, Buqayq, also known as Abqaiq, and Al-Ahsa, home to Al-Hofuf, before being lifted later in the day. Loud explosions were heard in Riyadh after an early warning alert, and residents of the eastern region also reported blasts despite Saudi statements that the missiles had been intercepted.

Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said air defenses destroyed two ballistic missiles fired toward Riyadh, and two cruise missiles and a drone over Riyadh and the southern regions. Another missile aimed at the Eastern Province was intercepted earlier in the day, Arab News reported.

The targets in the east are among the most sensitive in the kingdom. Abqaiq hosts Saudi Aramco’s largest crude oil processing plant, which was knocked partly offline by a drone and missile attack in 2019. Dammam and the nearby city of Dhahran form the center of the Saudi oil industry, and Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran was heavily damaged in an October attack, The Jerusalem Post reported, citing Reuters.

The most visible damage on Sunday was in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry described an “attempted” attack on a Saudi Aramco building in the capital and said the damage was caused by shrapnel falling on it. The ministry said the damage was limited and no one was injured. Witnesses who spoke to AFP said several floors of the tower appeared damaged, with shattered glass and part of the facade torn away, and footage of the building circulated widely on social media.

The King Abdullah Financial District is a cluster of office towers in northern Riyadh built as a showcase for the kingdom’s economic reform plans. It also includes housing and one of the city’s largest metro stations.

Najran, on the border with Yemen, has come under repeated fire. On November 6, debris fell in the area after the coalition intercepted two ballistic missiles aimed at the city.

Sunday’s attack was the largest in a steady campaign. The coalition has reported intercepting at least 15 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones aimed at Saudi territory since the start of November, with targets including Riyadh, Madinah, Najran, Makkah and the Eastern Province. Strikes in October that killed and wounded civilians forced Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport to suspend operations before it reopened under restrictions, and several international airlines have extended suspensions of flights to Riyadh into November. Airports in Dammam, Abha and Najran have also been disrupted.

Fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-aligned Houthis resumed in July 2026, ending a UN-brokered truce that had largely held since 2022. The renewed war is a spillover from the wider U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran that began in February. Since July, the Houthis have struck Saudi airports, energy infrastructure and military sites, while the coalition has carried out airstrikes in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has brought in outside help to defend its cities. Britain sent Typhoon fighters to guard Saudi cities from the Houthis, and Pakistani aircraft have reportedly taken part in strikes, with Pakistan joining Saudi airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthis.

On Saturday, the Houthi-run Saba news agency said Saudi airstrikes on a village near Sanaa killed at least 33 people and wounded 39, most of them women and children. Saudi Arabia’s Center for International Communication said it was investigating the report. The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced in Yemen since the Houthi war with Saudi Arabia resumed.