RIYADH: Saudi air defenses on Thursday intercepted and destroyed six ballistic missiles fired at the Kingdom by the Iran-backed Houthi militia. The missiles were aimed at the Red Sea port of Yanbu and the southwestern city of Taif, said Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. “Escalations and violations by the terrorist Houthi militia will be dealt with firmly,” he said. Civil defense chiefs had earlier issued brief alerts for the holy city of Makkah and the Jeddah and Tabuk regions. The warnings were quickly lifted when any potential danger had passed. The missiles were the latest in a series of escalating Houthi attacks since July. The Houthis tried to attack Makkah last week for the first time since 2017, with a drone that was shot down. A few days later they attacked Riyadh for the first time in years, marking a new escalation in the conflict. As the Houthi attacks targeted Saudi Arabia on Thursday, battles raged on the ground in Yemen. At least 150 Houthi fighters and government troops have been killed in the past 24 hours, military sources said, with clashes on hilltops overlooking the strategically important Bab Al-Mandab Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea. Many on both sides were also killed in clashes in the Kahboub Mountains and in areas between the Lahj and Taiz regions, as the Houthis seek to dominate the highlands overlooking Bab Al-Mandab to protect newly acquired territory.Government forces are fighting back after the Houthis seized much of Yemen’s Red Sea coast this month in a surprise lightning offensive that gave them effective control of Bab Al-Mandab and threatened Saudi oil exports through the waterway to Asia. A fragile 2022 truce fell apart in July after the militia allowed an Iranian plane to land in Sanaa in defiance of Riyadh’s control over Yemeni airspace.