SAUDI Arabia has confirmed that Yemen’s Houthi forces tried to attack its capital with a ballistic missile, in the first targeting of Riyadh since the escalation in fighting with the Tehran-backed movement that has opened a new front in the Iran war.

Saturday’s statement by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis came long after the dawn attempt, which the coalition said was intercepted. Some Riyadh residents heard an explosion and later a plume of smoke near the airport. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

The statement also said that the Houthis had tried to attack civilian infrastructure in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu — where a key Saudi pipeline ends — and in Taif, Baysh and Farasan, but they were thwarted.

The Houthis earlier claimed to have targeted “sensitive sites” in Riyadh and facilities of Saudi oil giant Aramco in Yanbu, causing “massive fires.”

Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said that the Yemeni forces had attacked with cruise and ballistic missiles as well as drones. He said Saudi Arabia had tried to target the Houthi-held Yemeni capital Sanaa, without giving details.

On Thursday, the first civilian casualty was reported when the Saudi civil defence said debris from an intercepted Houthi drone had killed a Yemeni resident of Saudi Arabia.

The day before, Saudi Arabia claimed that the Houthis had tried to attack Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, with a drone, but the projectile had been intercepted. The Houthis fiercely denied the allegation.

Meanwhile, the long-running civil war in Yemen between the Houthis and the forces of the Saudi-backed former government has flared up again. The Houthis raced down the Red Sea coast over a week ago, seizing the key port city of Mokha and islands on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.