The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing Saudi officials and people familiar with the matter, that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been moving between palaces equipped with bunkers and is guarded by a security team he picked himself, amid escalating missile and drone attacks on the kingdom by Yemen’s Houthi group.
According to the newspaper, the repeated attacks have depleted Saudi Arabia’s stockpile of interceptor missiles, prompting Riyadh to request military assistance from Pakistan and other friendly countries and to seek additional air defense systems from abroad.
Palaces and energy sites take priority
The Journal said the kingdom is struggling to protect its vast territory with the air defenses at its disposal and is shifting air defense batteries between regions to prioritize protecting royal palaces and major energy facilities. It is also considering recruiting foreign fighters to support Yemeni government forces against the Houthis, the newspaper said.
The crown prince asked Washington for military support to retake territory seized by the Houthis in Yemen, but the United States declined and instead sent military advisers to assist Saudi operations, the newspaper added. It noted that the Houthis stepped up attacks near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in August and captured the strategic coastal city of Mokha.
Attacks on Riyadh’s airport
The report comes after a Houthi attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Oct. 10 that, according to the newspaper, killed 13 people and wounded more than 300. The airport was targeted again the following day, killing one person and injuring 11. Two attacks on the Riyadh and Abha airports on Oct. 6 and 7 had killed three people and injured 36.
On Oct. 5, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye held an emergency meeting in Riyadh under the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, signed on Aug. 7, which stipulates that an armed attack on any of the three countries is considered an attack on all of them. There was no official Saudi comment on the newspaper’s report.
