Houthis fire 5 missiles at Riyadh and Eastern Province hours after Tehran talks

Yemen's Houthis fired two ballistic missiles at Riyadh on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, the Saudi-led coalition said, after a day in which Saudi air defences also destroyed three missiles aimed at the oil-rich Eastern Province and seven drones heading for the capital and the south. No casualties or damage were reported. The barrage came only hours after officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye ended a day of talks with Iran in Tehran by agreeing to meet again.

What happened

Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki announced each interception on X. The latest, on Tuesday afternoon, said air defences had "intercepted and destroyed" two ballistic missiles launched towards Riyadh; he gave no further details on possible damage.

Time (Saudi, Oct 27)	Target	Weapons destroyed
Around midnight	Riyadh region and the south	3 drones
Early morning	Eastern Province	3 ballistic missiles
Early morning	Southern regions	4 drones
Afternoon	Riyadh	2 ballistic missiles
Total		5 missiles, 7 drones

Saudi civil defence sent early warnings to phones in the Eastern Province and Kharj governorate, south of Riyadh, during the morning attack and later said the danger had passed in both areas. The Houthis did not immediately comment on Tuesday's launches.

The coalition said on Monday that it had destroyed Houthi missile launchers, storage tunnels and a missile depot near Sanaa after an earlier missile was fired at Riyadh.

Background

The Houthis, who control Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, have been at war with the Saudi-backed government since 2014, and Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition against them since March 2015. A UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted cross-border attacks, but it collapsed this autumn after the Houthis captured areas along Yemen's Red Sea coast and pushed towards the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping route. The fighting has become another front in the wider US-Israeli war with Iran, which backs the Houthis.

Saudi air defences now report interceptions almost daily. A strike on Riyadh's airport earlier this month killed 13 people, the deadliest attack in the kingdom in more than a decade, and led airlines to suspend flights and the kingdom to postpone major events.

The Tehran talks

On Monday, officials from the three countries in the Makkah defence pact — Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye — held talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran. Iranian security official Mohsen Rezaei described them as "very good discussions", and both sides agreed that security in the region should come from within the region and that foreign intervention should be prevented. Talks are to continue. Iranian diplomat Ali Bagheri Kani said separately that Washington must meet seven conditions before Tehran would consider a "new path".

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's cabinet reviewed the outcome of the talks on Tuesday. Egypt's parliament, meanwhile, has authorised President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to send forces to help defend Saudi Arabia, a move a Houthi official called a "declaration of war".

In the Gulf, Iran's armed forces chief Major General Ali Abdollahi said the Strait of Hormuz was "completely closed" to vessels not authorised by Tehran, and Iran's army said a tanker had hit mines while using an unauthorised route. Neither claim could be independently verified, and the United States has previously said the main shipping lanes remain open.

Why it matters

Each attack on Riyadh and the Eastern Province raises the risk to Saudi oil facilities and to the millions of foreign workers in the kingdom, including about 2.5 million Pakistanis whose remittances are vital to Pakistan's economy. Pakistan has said it is giving Saudi Arabia military support under the Makkah pact, and Islamabad is also one of the main mediators with Tehran, so a new Houthi escalation directly after the Tehran meeting complicates those efforts. Oil markets are already tense, with the Hormuz crisis keeping Brent crude above $100 a barrel.

What happens next

The coalition is expected to answer with further strikes on Houthi launch sites in Yemen. Further rounds of talks between the Makkah pact countries and Iran are planned, and governments including Australia and the United States continue to advise against travel to Saudi Arabia. Travellers should follow Saudi civil defence alerts and check flight status with their airline before going to the airport.