A drone attack has reportedly targeted a key electricity distribution facility serving Medina, one of Islam’s holiest cities. The Saudi-led military coalition has blamed Yemen’s Houthi movement for the attack on the facility that supplies power to the Prophet’s Mosque. The Houthis, however, have rejected the allegation as completely unfounded.
According to *Al Jazeera*, the attack took place Tuesday at a major electricity distribution center in Medina. One of the facility’s transformers was damaged, but electricity supplies were quickly maintained through alternative arrangements.
The Saudi-led coalition said an investigation, including an examination of drone debris, confirmed that Houthi fighters were directly responsible for planning and carrying out the attack. According to the coalition, the incident was part of an ongoing plot targeting the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, which it said was intended to provoke Muslims around the world.
The Houthis, however, rejected the accusation. A report by the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency described the claim as entirely “false and fabricated.” A Houthi military official alleged that Saudi Arabia had previously made false accusations about attacks targeting Mecca and was now staging the Medina incident to conceal its failure to provide evidence for those earlier claims.
Meanwhile, amid rising military tensions along the border, the Saudi-led coalition said Thursday, October 1, that it had intercepted and destroyed four Houthi drones over the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait. It also said two ballistic missiles were intercepted over the airspace of Khamis Mushait and Jazan.
Fighting has also intensified inside Yemen. Yemen’s internationally recognized government said dozens of Houthi fighters had been killed in clashes with government forces in Taiz province in southwestern Yemen.
According to military sources cited by the government, fierce fighting broke out Wednesday evening after the Houthis launched heavy artillery attacks on the Jabal Habashi and Maqbanah fronts west of Taiz and the Al-Akrud front in the southeast. At least 30 Houthi fighters were reportedly killed and many others wounded at the Al-Akrud battlefield alone. Government forces also carried out six targeted airstrikes on various fronts in Taiz, reportedly causing further Houthi casualties.
As the conflict deteriorates, the humanitarian crisis facing internally displaced people in Yemen is worsening. According to updated figures from the country’s Displacement Camp Management Unit, as of Wednesday, 197,906 displaced people from 29,519 families had been registered. More than 97,000 of them were sheltering in conflict-hit Taiz province, while another 50,000-plus displaced people had sought refuge in Lahij province.
