Blasts heard in Riyadh after attacks

CALL FOR AID: Syria was considering military support for Saudi Arabia, US and Syrian officials said, as Riyadh pushed allied nations for help, including Turkey and Pakistan

Diplomats stationed in the Saudi Arabian capital were yesterday sheltering in place and international schools took safety measures, diplomats and residents said, after explosions echoed across the city.

The explosions heard in Riyadh came hours after Houthis in Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia, claimed their latest attack on the kingdom.

The Iran-backed fighters have launched a wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia since they began a major offensive in Yemen against the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government there.

Houthi fighters ride in a pickup truck on a street in Sana’a on Wednesday.

Photo: EPA

Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces have struggled to contain the Houthis’ advance, despite a counteroffensive aimed at recapturing territory including the area around a waterway that is crucial to global energy flows.

In Riyadh, home to a large number of non-Saudi Arabians, diplomats were instructed to shelter in place in their respective embassies, diplomats said.

Several residents said that international schools were taking precautions, with at least one facility sending children into a basement for safety.

The measures came after repeated blasts were heard in the city, one of the loudest disturbances in the capital since the start of the Middle East war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.

Two people working in Riyadh’s business hub, the King Abdullah Financial District, said that some companies were evacuating staff from the area.

The latest blasts came a day after the Houthis claimed attacks on two international airports, while repeating a warning to airlines to avoid Saudi airspace.

“On Tuesday and Wednesday ... Abha International Airport and King Khalid International Airport were subjected to attacks targeting their facilities,” the Saudi Arabian General Authority of Civil Aviation said.

An Egyptian and an Algerian national were killed at Abha airport, while a Sudanese national was killed at Riyadh airport, the agency said.

The attacks wounded 36 people, it added.

On Wednesday in Yemen, clashes left at least 62 combatants dead, including 37 Houthis, military sources from both camps said.

Meanwhile, Syria might deploy troops to help Saudi Arabia fight the Houthis, a US official and a Syrian defense official said.

The possible entry of Syrian forces into the battle shows how Yemen’s reignited civil war has added new chaos to a region already aflame, and risks drawing regional states into grueling mountain fighting.

Saudi Arabia has pushed for support from allied nations, including Turkey and Pakistan, even if only in a logistical or purely defensive capacity.

Syria was carefully considering military support, including the option of defensive aid to protect Saudi Arabia from attacks or deployment in an offensive capacity to help Saudi-backed Yemeni troops take the fight to the Houthis, the US and Syrian officials aid.

Yemen’s long-running civil war, which paused with a ceasefire in 2022, has erupted again in the past few weeks with the Houthis seizing stretches of the Red Sea coast last month, including along the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The Houthis have said they were responding to attacks from the Saudi-backed government, which the government denies.

In response to a request for comment to the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a diplomat said the country stood firmly with Saudi Arabia in the face of Houthi attacks, but that the government’s primary focus was on domestic priorities such as recovery from the country’s civil war.

“Should Saudi Arabia request any military cooperation or exchange of expertise, this would take place exclusively through official channels and within the framework of the bilateral agreements governing relations between our two brotherly countries,” the diplomat said in a statement.