Three people died and several others were injured when Houthi strikes hit Riyadh airport on Thursday, Saudi authorities said Friday. One of those killed worked for Saudia Airlines, the carrier said. A Saudia plane also suffered damage. Smoke drifted over the airport, and many airlines cancelled flights to the Saudi capital.
The kingdom’s airports have now endured two deadly weeks in a row. Reuters reported that Houthi strikes on Saudi airports had already killed three people earlier in the week. By Friday, Saudi civil aviation authorities said, air traffic had returned to normal. Flightradar24, a flight-tracking site, showed services gradually resuming, including flights operated by some Middle Eastern airlines.
A Widening Air War
The violence is moving in both directions. Overnight, Saudi airstrikes hit Houthi targets in Sanaa, Houthi officials and affiliated media said. The attacks form part of an intensifying air war meant to reverse the Iran-allied group’s recent territorial gains, counter its threats to international shipping and stop its attacks on the kingdom.
A Saudi-led coalition that backs government forces in Yemen said it had destroyed three Houthi missile launch platforms. It warned that attacks on civilians would draw a firm response. The Houthis, meanwhile, have announced repeated rounds of ballistic missile fire at Saudi Arabia. They’ve said they would shut Saudi airspace and warned workers at oil facilities that they would be struck.
That warning matters. Airport staff, airline employees and oil workers aren’t combatants. They’re people showing up for a shift. The Saudia employee killed Thursday was one of them.
The Siege of Taiz
The human stakes are highest in Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city. More than half a million people live there, along with a garrison of thousands of pro-government fighters. The Houthis have encircled government forces and cut a key road connecting the city, advancing through mountain districts. The base reporting doesn’t describe conditions inside Taiz. But a city of that size, with its main road severed, faces shortages in a country already ground down by war.
The fighting also stretches along the Red Sea coast. Last month, the Houthis advanced down Yemen’s Red Sea coast and took full control of the coastline around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Saudi Arabia then re-entered the long-dormant conflict and backed a government counteroffensive. On Monday, government forces retook territory around the Bab el-Mandeb coastline after intense Saudi airstrikes. Fighting continued there, as the Houthis tried to defend their coastal positions against the Saudi-backed offensive.
A Regional War With Global Costs
Yemen’s civil war has become the fiercest front in a wider regional conflict triggered by the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran that began February 28. Its effects reach far beyond Yemen. The Houthis have fired on shipping in the Red Sea and at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, its southern gateway. Iran has partly blocked the Strait of Hormuz, further squeezing Gulf oil supplies.
Riyadh is due to host a major meeting of global oil chiefs within days. Saudi Arabia is seeking help from Pakistan and Turkey, its partners in a mutual defence pact, to ward off Houthi attacks. It has also asked wider allies to help reverse the group’s gains inside Yemen.
Why This Matters: Each side is answering escalation with more escalation. Saudi airstrikes on Sanaa, Houthi missiles on Riyadh and a tightening siege around Taiz all point toward a longer, wider war. None points toward talks. The base reporting records no diplomatic track, only requests for military help. Civilians bear the cost first: an airline worker killed on shift, passengers stranded by cancelled flights and hundreds of thousands of people in a surrounded city. The war has also tied Yemen’s fate to the Red Sea and Hormuz. That link raises pressure on energy markets and makes a negotiated settlement harder to reach. Without political engagement, the fighting that began with the attack on Iran keeps opening new fronts.