The Arab destroyed a ballistic missile fired.

RIYADH — The Arab coalition fighting in Yemen intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired by the Houthi rebels 65 kilometers away from the holy city of Makkah.

The missile was fired from Yemen’s Saada province just across the Saudi border at around 9 p.m. Thursday, a coalition statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The coalition has been carrying out a bombing campaign against the rebels since March last year and there have been strikes toward Saudi cities in the border region. Saudi Arabia has deployed Patriot missiles to intercept the rebel fire.

“The Houthi rebels launched a missile toward the Makkah area on Thursday evening from their Saada province stronghold just across the border,” the coalition statement said. “The air defense was able to intercept and destroyed it about 65 kilometers from Makkah without any damage,” it added.

Makkah lies more than 500 kilometers from the Yemen border.

It is the second time this month that the rebels have fired a missile of that range. On Oct. 9, the coalition said it had intercepted a missile near Taif, the site of a Saudi airbase some 65 kilometers from Makkah.

In a separate incident on Thursday, rebel fire hit a two-story residential building in the border city of Jazan but there were no casualties, the Civil Defense agency said.