Saudi Arabia says three dead at airports after Houthis claim attacks

RIYADH – The Saudi authorities said on Oct 7 that three people were killed in attacks on two of the kingdom’s international airports, including in the capital Riyadh, after Yemen’s Houthis claimed to have fired on both transport hubs.

The Iran-backed fighters earlier took responsibility for a flurry of attacks that included firing a ballistic missile at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport as the conflict deepens with Saudi Arabia, which backs Yemen’s government.

“On Tuesday and Wednesday (Oct 6 and 7)... Abha International Airport and King Khalid International Airport were subjected to attacks targeting their facilities,” the kingdom’s civil aviation authority said in a statement, without blaming anyone for the attacks.

An Egyptian and an Algerian national were killed at Abha airport, and a Sudanese national was killed at the airport in Riyadh, the agency said, with 36 people wounded in the attacks.

The Saudi-led coalition that backs pro-government forces in Yemen said on social media platform X that it “destroyed the ballistic missile launch platform” used in the attack on Riyadh.

In a subsequent statement, the coalition directly blamed Houthi forces and said it would retaliate.

“The brutal attacks by the terrorist Houthi militia on civilian and civilian objects in the kingdom, most recently targeting (the two airports) will not go unpunished,” it said on X.

The coalition said that, as a result, it struck and destroyed 82 “legitimate military targets”, including Houthi mountain-based ballistic missile facilities, command-and-control centres, communication systems and gathering sites.

The Yemeni group, which controls most of the country’s north-west, is battling for territory against the Saudi-backed forces after the civil war reignited in July, and it captured swathes of coastal land.

The fighting has displaced more than 200,000 people within the country, the UN said on Oct 7.

Yemen’s internationally recognised government this week declared a major counter-offensive and claims to have pushed Houthi fighters out of strategic areas on the Red Sea and the port city of Mokha.

But the Iran-backed Houthis say they are holding their territory, and military sources from both sides contacted by AFP have not reported any major changes on the ground. Claims by the warring parties have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation moving fast and access for journalists difficult.

Flight diverted

On Oct 7, in a post on X, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said: “Our armed forces have just targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile. The strike was accurate, by God’s grace, and led to a disruption of air traffic.”

The Saudi-led military coalition said the missile was intercepted.

The Houthis also said they targeted a military supply convoy near the airport in the Yemeni city of Aden, the interim capital for the government.

The Yemeni government’s Saba news agency reported missiles and drones targeting that airport.

The agency cited transport authorities as saying one of the missiles landed near the runway minutes before the scheduled arrival of a flight from Cairo, which was forced to divert to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Houthi drones and missiles also targeted Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport and King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, Saree said, claiming they had “hit their targets accurately”.

It is the second time this week that the Houthis claimed to have attacked the main airport in the Saudi capital.

‘Terrified’

Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has been fighting the Houthis since 2015 and is now trying to roll back the group’s latest advance.

On Oct 5, the coalition said it was providing air support for the counter-offensive launched by Yemeni government forces.

After a four-year ceasefire, Yemen’s civil war re-erupted in July. In September, the Houthis seized the entire western coastline along the Red Sea in the country’s deadliest fighting in years.

On Oct 7, new clashes in Yemen’s west left at least 62 combatants dead, including 37 Houthis, military sources from both camps told AFP.

Saba also reported that the Houthis fired a missile at the city of Taiz, which is held by government forces, wounding five civilians.

Taiz resident Al-Fateh al-Eisaei told AFP: “We went out into the street to check on the wounded and saw young civilians who had been hit. The Houthi shell landed in the middle of the street, right in an area crowded with civilians.”

Yemen’s government has announced a goal of retaking all Houthi territory – home to most of the country’s population, and much of it held for more than a decade.

The humanitarian crisis caused by the war has left most of the nation’s population dependent on aid.

Mohammed, a 33-year-old charity worker who fled from Mocha to Aden, told AFP on Oct 6 that “people there are terrified” of the Houthis. AFP