Houthi airport strikes in Saudi Arabia kill three as Yemen war intensifies

Two attacks on airports in Saudi Arabia killed three people and injured 36 others on Wednesday, Saudi officials said, after Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for strikes on Abha airport and Riyadh’s King Khalid Airport. The attacks came as Saudi Arabia was drawn deeper into the latest front in the Iran war.

The airport strikes were reported as Saudi-led coalition forces stepped up operations in Yemen, where fighting has intensified around the Red Sea coast and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The latest escalation has also reignited Yemen’s civil war, with the United Nations saying nearly 1,000 people have been killed and more than 200,000 displaced.

The Saudi General Authority for Civil Aviation did not blame any party for the attacks, though the Houthis had earlier claimed the strikes. Officials said the attack on Abha airport killed Moroccan and Algerian residents and wounded 28 other people, while the attack on King Khalid airport killed a Sudanese national and injured eight others. As Riyadh has come under attack over the past week, new cage-like fences have been put up around fuel tanks and other equipment of state-run Aramco near the capital’s airport. Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, has seen oil and military assets targeted in recent days, threatening a key shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where traffic has been reduced because of the Iran war.

Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, said forces intercepted a ballistic missile north of Riyadh and destroyed a launch platform in Yemen’s capital Sanaa that had been used to attack the Saudi capital. The Associated Press said it could not independently verify the claims. Saudi Arabia and allied Yemeni forces have launched a major ground and air offensive aimed at retaking territory seized by the rebels last month along Yemen’s western Red Sea coast and on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Those positions gave the Houthis better surveillance as they pursued a blockade of Saudi-linked shipping. On Monday, officials said coalition forces had recaptured several key areas around the strait, through which about 12 per cent of global trade passes.

In an analysis, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said, ‘The Houthis believe that they can maximise Saudi economic costs and compel Saudi Arabia to surrender to Houthi demands by striking civilian infrastructure, such as oil facilities and airports.’ Inside Yemen, fighting has centred in and around Dhubab, about 54 km south of the port city of Mokha, which the rebels seized last month, according to both the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognised government. Two Houthi officials said on Wednesday that the rebels had regained control of key parts of Yemen’s south-western coast, including Dhubab and the nearby village of Al-Jadid, as well as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, after intensified fighting with Saudi-backed coalition forces. A government official denied the claim, which AP said it could not independently verify.

The Houthis also said Saudi forces had targeted ‘civilian assets’ over the past 24 hours in Sanaa, as well as Taiz, Jawf and other active fronts, including Saada and Marib. Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said, without providing evidence, that fighter jets used in the attacks had taken off from Khamis Mushait and Taif in Saudi Arabia, while missiles had been launched from Najran and Jizan. The rebels have repeatedly claimed attacks on those Saudi cities in recent weeks.

Al-Malki has vowed ‘full operational support’ to Yemeni government forces until the Houthis are ‘eliminated’. The coalition has said 100 fighter jets were providing support, and that another aim was to liberate Sanaa, the rebel-controlled capital. Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi criticised Saudi Arabia over its support for Yemen’s government forces in the latest escalation, which has shattered a truce reached four years ago. In a speech on Wednesday marking the third anniversary of Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, he said the rebels were ready to support Palestinians ‘in every way they can’ in case of ‘any new round of escalation’ with Israel.

The offensive began after the rebels seized Turbah town on a main road linking Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, with Aden, the seat of the internationally recognised government. Officials have said US support has included intelligence sharing, target identification and planning. The World Health Organization said this week that cholera and malnutrition cases are rising, access to trauma care has become more difficult, and some hospitals are facing shortages of surgical and other supplies.

The Houthis also said they launched a missile strike early on Wednesday against Aden. Explosions were heard by an AP journalist at about 2 am. Saree said the rebels had hit a military camp near the city’s airport with ballistic missiles, while security authorities in Aden said the airport had been targeted with two missiles and there were no casualties. Yemen’s Human Rights Ministry said one missile landed near the runway just before the scheduled arrival of a flight from Cairo. Flight 603, operated by Yemen’s national airline, landed safely in Aden at 3.30 am, according to FlightAware. The ministry said the strike came as other passengers were waiting to board a flight to Jeddah.

The attacks on airports in Saudi Arabia, the fighting around Bab el-Mandeb and the missile strike near Aden together marked a sharp escalation in the conflict, as both sides pressed military claims and the humanitarian toll in Yemen continued to rise.

With PTI Inputs

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