Egyptian forces had been stationed in Saudi Arabia for months, FM reveals
Egyptian troops have operated on Saudi Arabian soil for several months, Egypt’s foreign minister disclosed on Tuesday, revealing an ongoing military deployment that coincides with fresh Ansar Allah (the Houthis) cross-border strikes against targets deep inside the kingdom and a renewed campaign of retaliatory airstrikes.
Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty confirmed the months-long troop deployment during an interview with France24 on the sidelines of the Group of Seven ministerial gathering in the French capital. Abdelatty linked the stationing of forces to what he described as ongoing friction with Iran and attacks against Saudi territory, pointing to a parliamentary mandate empowering President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to enact defensive measures in support of Riyadh under Egypt’s longstanding doctrine that Saudi security remains inseparable from its own.
The diplomatic revelation emerged as the Saudi-led Arab Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen acknowledged intercepting multiple inbound aerial threats launched toward urban centers and vital regions across the kingdom.
According to coalition statements, Saudi air defenses shot down two missiles targeting Riyadh—one ballistic projectile and one cruise missile—while intercepting an additional ballistic missile bound for the southern region alongside a drone over the Eastern Province, withholding specific details regarding impact coordinates or resulting wreckage.
Coalition spokesperson Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Malki claimed on Monday that alliance forces destroyed several Ansar Allah production facilities, including an assembly plant for ballistic missile components, a chemical facility dedicated to mixing solid rocket propellant, and an electronics laboratory handling missile guidance systems.
The Ansar Allah-aligned Yemeni Armed Forces claimed responsibility for a multi-pronged wave of four coordinated military assaults aimed at deep Saudi territory and coalition troop concentrations in the coastal districts of Al-Madaribah and Ras Al-Arah.
In an official communique, the group stated its ballistic missiles and combat drones scored direct hits on King Khalid International Airport, several pumping stations along the East-West crude pipeline, the state oil firm Aramco’s facility in Abqaiq, and the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, maintaining the barrages triggered fires and inflicted structural damage.
Ansar Allah officials stated that cross-border strikes as retaliation for civilian casualties in Taiz province, issuing direct warnings to foreign commercial firms and international investors to pull capital out of the kingdom and relocate assets to secure countries, asserting that Saudi Arabia no longer constitutes a viable or secure market for investment.
The aerial war continued inside Yemen at dawn on Tuesday, as Saudi warplanes reportedly struck multiple sites across the capital, Sanaa, according to SABA. The Ministry of Health in Sanaa reported that strikes on the Al-Mufzer gas station in the Jadr area of Bani al-Harith district killed one civilian and wounded three others.
The cross-border exchange caps a period of mutual recrimination between the internationally recognized Yemeni government and the Houthi movement over an attack on Souq Al-Hadarah in Taiz.
Local pro-government authorities on Friday accused Houthi forces of shelling the marketplace, causing civilian deaths and injuries, while denying that government or allied warplanes conducted sorties in the surrounding al-Wazi’iyah district. Ansar Allah media outlets countered by attributing the marketplace carnage directly to Saudi airstrikes.