Saudi costs of their miscalculation is only going to go up.
Houthi Attacks on Riyadh Airport Leave 3 Dead, Saudi Arabia Says
The escalating violence has brought the conflict in Yemen to the doorstep of the Saudi capital, and the kingdom has no easy options to curtail the increasingly sophisticated and targeted strikes.
The Saudi authorities said on Friday that
attacks on the international airport in Riyadh a day earlier had killed three people, the latest casualties in a week of escalating strikes by the Iran-backed Houthi militia of Yemen.
The Houthis, who have vowed a prolonged campaign against Saudi Arabia, claimed responsibility for the attacks on Thursday, and said that they had also targeted infrastructure in the south of the kingdom, including an airport in Najran and an air base near Khamis Mushait.
The Saudi authorities did not respond to questions about the Houthi claims but said in statements on social media that they had intercepted missiles fired toward
Khamis Mushait and
Riyadh, the capital.
The latest attacks followed a series of Houthi strikes earlier this week on airports in Riyadh and Abha, a city in southern Saudi Arabia, which left three other people dead and dozens more injured, according to the Saudi authorities.
The escalating violence has brought the conflict in Yemen to the doorstep of the Saudi capital, widening the regional fallout from the U.S. war on Iran, the Houthis’ primary backer. Iran has also stepped up its attacks on oil and gas shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, with at least eight tankers targeted over the past week, pointing to an intensifying campaign by the United States’ adversaries in the region.
For months, the worsening conflict between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia has made it more dangerous to export oil through the Red Sea, which had provided an alternative route for Saudi shipments after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz.
The Houthis’ attacks on Riyadh have also underscored the group’s ability to target major Saudi infrastructure, raising pressure on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader, to halt the assaults.
As well as the three killed in the attacks on the Riyadh airport, all of whom were Saudi nationals, an unspecified number of citizens and foreign residents were wounded, some seriously, the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation said.
On Friday, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen, vowed a firm response to attacks on civilians and civilian facilities, saying his forces had destroyed three Houthi missile launchers.
Hours after the attacks on the Riyadh airport, Saudi airstrikes pounded the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, wounding six people, including women and children, the Houthi-administered health ministry said on Friday. Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes and on the reported civilian casualties.
Saudi Arabia’s aviation regulator said that the two attacks in Riyadh on Thursday had targeted facilities at King Khalid International Airport and an aircraft belonging to the national carrier, Saudia.
The airline said in a statement that an employee had been killed and that a plane had been damaged while on the ground with no passengers aboard. Saudia identified the employee as Capt. Hamoud Ali Alkalthami, and said that its flights and operations at the airport had later returned to normal.
Several international airlines have halted services to Riyadh. Lufthansa of Germany and Air India suspended flights to the city on Thursday, with Lufthansa’s suspension set to run through Oct. 16. About one in four departures from Saudi airports and dozens of inbound flights were canceled on Thursday, according to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm.
The disruption comes as Riyadh prepares to host the WPC Energy Congress, a major gathering of energy officials and executives, beginning on Sunday. Later this month, the city is also scheduled to host the Future Investment Initiative, an annual meeting that typically draws world leaders, billionaires and top global executives.
Saudi Arabia has few easy options for restoring the stability on which its economic ambitions depend, analysts say. The kingdom faces the difficult task of stopping the Houthi attacks while avoiding another prolonged war against the militia, which has already survived years of Saudi bombardment.
Saudi officials announced
a new bombing campaign in Yemen this week, and the Houthis have vowed to fight back by hitting airports and energy infrastructure.
Backed by Saudi warplanes, forces affiliated with the internationally recognized government of Yemen have mounted a counteroffensive in recent days to
retake strategically important territory along the Red Sea. The Houthis
seized parts of that coast last month in a lightning offensive that gave the militia group greater control over the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a critical route for global trade.
In 2015, Saudi Arabia led a disastrous bombing campaign against the Houthis in a bid to restore Yemen’s government, which had been driven out of the capital, Sanaa. The war led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, before a fragile truce was agreed in 2022.
Since fighting reignited last month, nearly 200,000 Yemenis have been displaced, according to the United Nations.
