Saudi Arabia’s civil defence authorities said the danger had passed in the capital, Riyadh, on Monday, minutes after raising an alert, a day after an attack by Yemen’s Houthis damaged an office building belonging to oil giant Aramco in the city.

On Sunday, debris from an attempted attack blew out windows across several floors of the Aramco Tower in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District. The Saudi energy ministry said the damage was limited and there were no casualties, while the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted Houthi missiles over the capital.

Houthis claim a wider wave of strikes

The Houthis claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack. In a statement, the group said its forces had carried out four operations using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, listing targets including the financial district, Riyadh airport, Aramco oil storage tanks and the eastern Saudi city of Abqaiq.

Saudi air defences intercepted two ballistic missiles launched towards Riyadh, according to coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki. The coalition also said it had intercepted and destroyed two cruise missiles over Riyadh and the southern region.

The Houthis have stepped up missile and drone strikes on Saudi airports, ports and oil facilities in recent weeks. Hostilities between the kingdom and the Iran-aligned group resumed in July, ending a truce that had held since 2022 and opening another front in the wider Middle East war triggered by US and Israeli attacks on Iran in February.

A conflict spreading beyond Yemen

The fighting in and around Yemen has intensified sharply since the truce collapsed. The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since fighting resumed. Yemeni government forces launched an operation in early October aimed at retaking territory lost to the Houthis, who seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014 and control much of the north of the country, including the Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandeb strait.

Sunday’s attack on Riyadh followed a Houthi claim that a Saudi-led coalition air strike near Sanaa had killed at least 33 people, including women and children. A senior Houthi official had promised a response the day before the Aramco Tower was hit.

Monday’s brief alert and swift all-clear underline how quickly the conflict now reaches into the Saudi capital. Residents were warned and then told within minutes that the danger had passed, but the episode came only a day after falling debris damaged one of the most prominent towers in Riyadh’s financial district. With the Houthis vowing further strikes and the coalition continuing its air campaign in Yemen, the pattern of attack and interception that has marked recent weeks shows no sign of easing.