Houthi attacks kill three at Saudi Airports, including in Riyadh

The Iran-backed Houthis have struck two airports in Saudi Arabia, killing three people and injuring dozens as the militant group intensifies its attacks on the kingdom while fighting Saudi-backed forces in Yemen.

King Khalid International Airport in the capital, Riyadh, and Abha airport in the southwestern region came under fire on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the two strikes causing some damage, the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said in a statement. The Houthis claimed to have attacked both airports.

A Sudanese man was killed in the assault on the Riyadh airport, according to GACA. Five Saudi nationals, two Egyptians and a Pakistani resident were injured.

Two women, Moroccan and Algerian, were killed in the strike on Abha International Airport, where 28 including Saudi citizens sustained injuries ranging from minor to serious.

GACA said it was working to “assess the damage, verify the safety of the facilities and take the necessary measures to ensure the safety of passengers and maintain the security and safety of operations within the Kingdom’s civil aviation system.”

In retaliation, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it had destroyed 82 military targets belonging to the Houthis in Saada, Hodeida, Jawf and Marib. These include ballistic missile storage sites and command and control centers, a spokesman for the coalition said in a post on X. Houthi attacks on civilian sites in the kingdom “will not go unpunished,” the spokesman, Turki Al-Malki, said.

The coalition said early Wednesday that it intercepted a ballistic missile north of Riyadh that was launched by the Houthis, and later announced it had destroyed the launch platform used in the attack. It was located in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and was being prepared for another strike against Saudi Arabia, Al-Malki added.

The assaults on the Saudi airports follow a military campaign triggered by Yemen’s internationally-recognized government, backed by Saudi Arabia, earlier this week to “eliminate” the Houthis, a clan from Yemen’s north. The Yemeni armed forces claimed to have taken control of the Red Sea areas.

The Houthis, one of Tehran’s main proxy militant groups that took over Sanaa in 2014, announced a blockade on Saudi ports, claiming the kingdom was besieging parts of Yemen.

Fighting picked up in early September, when the group started firing on Saudi Arabia almost daily and advanced south from its stronghold in north-west Yemen toward the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a key waterway for energy tankers and container ships. That passage became even more vital after the Iran war endangered ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Houthi group’s missile threats originate from Sanaa as well as Saada and Amran in Yemen’s northwestern region, according to the Saudi-led coalition. The GACA previously said Saudi Arabia’s Jazan and Najran airports were targeted in attacks on Monday, causing damage and injuring three people.