Iran-backed Houthis said Monday, October 5, that they had struck Riyadh’s international airport, an oil refinery and other sites in Saudi Arabia. Fighting intensified along the Red Sea coast as Yemeni government forces advanced against Houthi positions. Loud explosions rattled the Saudi capital that evening.
A Houthi spokesman said the group targeted King Khalid International Airport, an Aramco refinery and other sites in the kingdom’s south. The claims came as the Saudi-led coalition said it had destroyed Houthi targets on the coast.
Strikes and the Red Sea Threat
Turki Al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said on X that naval forces hit Houthi “military targets” in Hodeida. He said they “destroyed weapons depots, facilities storing booby-trapped boats and naval mines” and had “thwarted a planned attack” targeting waterways in the southern Red Sea. The Houthis had declared a maritime blockade on Saudi ships and repeatedly attacked Saudi oil infrastructure and tankers in the Red Sea.
The Yemeni military said it carried out more than 1,000 strikes and began an offensive against Sanaa. The Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government said 100 warplanes flew sorties at dawn. Separately, The National reported that 100 jets took part in the Sunday offensive.
Yemeni government forces said they drove Houthi forces from areas around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, including Dhubab airport and Al-Omari military camp. The National reported that government forces recaptured the strategic port city of Mokha. Military sources cited by AFP didn't confirm an official announcement that the city had been recaptured. Instead, they said pro-government forces had cut off the only supply route to the port.
Advance on Houthi Positions
The military also said it expelled the Houthis from several areas in Taiz, in southwest Yemen, where deadly fighting had surged in recent days. The United Nations says the fighting has displaced more than 184,000 people and has become the most active front in the Middle East war in recent weeks.
The Houthis previously controlled much of northern Yemen, including Sanaa and Hodeida, and seized swathes of coastline along the Red Sea and the key Bab al-Mandab Strait. The report described the fighting as Yemen’s deadliest in years. The group has also attacked neighbouring Saudi Arabia since Yemen’s civil war flared back to life.
Saudi Arabia’s Response
Pakistan and Turkey pledged to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defence pact after weeks of Houthi attacks. Riyadh and its Yemeni government allies began a push to retake territory held by the group. Representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey met in Riyadh on Monday under a joint defence agreement signed in August. The agreement commits them to aid one another in the event of an attack. Their statement said they agreed “to take the necessary measures to provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment in the Kingdom.” It didn't specify the troops’ role.
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned by the sharp escalation in fighting” and condemned “the continued Houthi cross-border attacks” on Saudi Arabia.
A source in the Saudi energy sector told AFP that a Sunday attack again halted pumping through the East-West pipeline to the Red Sea. The pipeline is a key route for Saudi exports since Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the wider Middle East war. Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser warned Monday that global oil stockpiles were “scarily thin” because of the war. “The system is already straining,” Nasser told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London.