Three people died Thursday when Houthi attacks hit Riyadh airport, Saudi authorities said Friday. The strikes injured several others and damaged a Saudia Airlines plane. Smoke rose over the airport as airlines cancelled flights to the Saudi capital, just days before it was due to host a major meeting of global oil chiefs. One of the dead worked for Saudia Airlines, the company said.
The Iran-allied group has intensified missile strikes on Saudi Arabia and sought to shut down the kingdom’s airspace. Saudi civil aviation authorities said air traffic had returned to normal. Flightradar24 showed flights gradually resuming, including services run by some Middle Eastern airlines.
Airport strikes and Saudi response
The Riyadh attack followed Houthi strikes on airports in the kingdom earlier in the week, which had already killed three people, Reuters reported. The group has announced repeated rounds of ballistic missile fire at Saudi Arabia, said it would shut Saudi airspace and warned workers at oil facilities that it would strike them.
A Saudi-led coalition backing government forces in Yemen said it had destroyed three Houthi missile launch platforms. The coalition warned it would respond firmly to attacks on civilians. Overnight, Saudi aircraft struck Houthi targets in Sanaa, Houthi officials and affiliated media said.
The airstrikes form part of an intensifying air war aimed at reversing the group’s recent territorial gains, threats to international shipping and attacks on the kingdom. The Houthis have encircled Yemeni government forces in Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, and are defending positions on the Red Sea coast against a Saudi-backed offensive.
Red Sea front and regional pressure
Last month, Houthi forces advanced down Yemen’s Red Sea coast and took full control of the coastline around the 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, while fighting continued there.
The Houthis have also cut a key road connecting Taiz through advances in mountain districts. More than half a million people live in the city, which has a garrison of thousands of pro-government fighters. The road and coastal fighting are part of a conflict with consequences beyond Yemen: the Houthis have fired on shipping in the Red Sea and at its southern gateway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
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. Iran has partly blocked the Strait of Hormuz, further squeezing Gulf oil supplies, while Houthi attacks have added pressure on shipping through the Red Sea and its southern entrance. Riyadh airport’s attacks also disrupted flights to a capital preparing to host global oil chiefs.
Saudi Arabia is seeking assistance from Pakistan and Turkey, its partners in a mutual defence pact, to help ward off Houthi attacks. It has also sought wider assistance from allies to reverse the group’s gains inside Yemen. The airport casualties, missile threats, attacks on oil facilities and pressure on shipping are unfolding alongside continued fighting around Taiz and the Bab el-Mandeb coast.