Houthis launch drone at Saudi city of Taif, civil defense says

The strike comes as Saudi Arabia seeks a two-week truce with the Houthis through Omani mediation, with an agreement possible by the end of the week.

Yemen's Houthis launched a drone at the Saudi city of Taif, Saudi Civil Defense said, according to state television.

Taif sits inland, far from the Red Sea shipping corridor where most Houthi attacks have concentrated. The strike follows a Houthi claim on Wednesday of an attack on an Aramco site in Yanbu, and a Tuesday incident in which the Saudi-led coalition intercepted a Houthi drone and vowed action to protect the holy mosques.

The attack lands in the middle of a diplomatic push to calm the conflict. Saudi Arabia has asked Oman to mediate a two-week truce with Ansar Allah, with an agreement possibly announced by the end of the week, and China is pressing Iran to rein in the Houthis after a Saudi appeal. Separately, US officials have held talks with the Houthis in Oman over the Red Sea shipping attacks, and the Houthis have told the Americans they will avoid attacking Israeli vessels.

Saudi Arabia is also working to bring the East-West Pipeline back online after it was knocked offline by a September attack that hit two pump stations. The kingdom is seeking to restore roughly half the pipeline's capacity within days, with full restoration expected in about six weeks; the line normally carries 4 to 5 million barrels a day around the Strait of Hormuz. Because Taif lies well beyond the shipping corridor, the drone raises the question of whether the Houthis are extending their reach, but with truce talks advancing and pipeline repairs underway, the strike looks for now like an isolated incident rather than a break in the broader negotiations.