ERBIL () - Saudi Arabia's civil defense agency issued a warning of potential danger in Najran Province on Tuesday the first alert since the Houthis launched an attack targeting Riyadh over the weekend, with residents told to remain indoors and avoid open areas before the alert was lifted a short while later.
"A warning has been issued by the National Early Warning Platform in the Najran Province to alert of a potential danger,"the agency said in a statement posted online, asking people to stay indoors and avoid open areas during the alert period.
The Najran alert is the latest in a rapidly escalating sequence of Houthi military actions against Saudi Arabia that has reached its most intense phase since the Iran-backed group reignited its war with the kingdom this summer. Najran Province sits directly on Saudi Arabia's southern border with Yemen and has historically been one of the most frequently targeted Saudi regions during previous rounds of Houthi-Saudi military confrontation, given its geographic proximity to Houthi-controlled territory.
The weekend attack on Riyadh that preceded Tuesday's Najran warning saw a Houthi ballistic missile intercepted over the Saudi capital on Saturday morning, September 19, 2026, in the most direct single attempt yet to strike the Saudi capital. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called President Donald Trump three times over ten days, on September 10 twice and again on Thursday, September 17, each time urging American strikes on the Houthis. Trump told the Pentagon to prepare airstrikes after Thursday's call but reversed the decision by Sunday, with most of his inner circle deeply skeptical or outright opposed to opening a new front given existing US military strains from the Iran war.
The Houthis seized the strategic port city of Mocha and Perim Island in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in early September, threatening Saudi Arabia's last functioning oil export corridor after its East-West pipeline was struck by drones launched from Iraq on September 10. The G7 foreign ministers issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling on Iran to stop arming and supporting the Houthis, describing the situation in Yemen as a dangerous threat to regional stability, security, and global energy security. The US State Department and several American embassies across the Middle East simultaneously issued security warnings to American citizens citing the possibility of unexpected escalation and Houthi hostile activity against Saudi Arabia.
The Najran alert, issued and lifted on the same day as the G7 statement, the global Iranian airline shutdown announced by Treasury Secretary Bessent, and Iranian President Pezeshkian's departure for the UN General Assembly in New York, illustrates the breadth of simultaneous pressure points across the conflict's most active day in weeks.
