Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement said Thursday that it had launched a ballistic missile at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, escalating a recent series of attacks on Saudi Arabia’s civilian infrastructure.
The claim followed Saudi Arabia’s announcement that an attack on the same airport earlier in the week had killed one person. A separate strike on Abha International Airport left two people dead, Saudi authorities said.
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Saudi Arabia had not immediately confirmed the Houthis’ latest assertion.
The Iran-backed group has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Saudi civilian sites in recent weeks, as forces supported by Riyadh intensified a counter-offensive against the Houthis’ territorial gains in Yemen.
After claiming another strike on King Khalid International Airport, the Houthis renewed what they called a final warning to airlines, urging them to stay out of Saudi airspace.
Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said in a statement issued Wednesday night: “On Tuesday and Wednesday… Abha International Airport and King Khalid International Airport were subjected to attacks targeting their facilities.”
The agency said an Egyptian and an Algerian national were killed at Abha airport, while a Sudanese national died at Riyadh airport. The attacks also wounded 36 people, it said.
The authority did not say which airport was struck on which day.
In a later statement, the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government directly accused Houthi fighters of carrying out the attacks and promised retaliation.
“The brutal attacks by the Terrorist Houthi Militia on civilian and civilian objects in the Kingdom, most recently targeting (the two airports) will not go unpunished,” the coalition wrote on X.
It said its response had targeted 82 “legitimate military targets”, including missile installations, command centres, communications equipment and locations where Houthi fighters were gathering.
Yemen’s government announced a major counter-offensive against the Houthis this week, saying its forces had driven the group from strategic positions along the Red Sea and from the port city of Mocha.
The Houthis, however, maintain that they still control their positions, while military sources have reported no significant shifts on the battlefield.
The competing claims cannot be independently verified as events move quickly and journalists face limited access to the conflict zone.
Syria weighs military aid for Saudi Arabia
Syria is weighing whether to provide military assistance to its key ally Saudi Arabia as the kingdom’s war with the Houthis intensifies, according to a US official and a Syrian military official briefed on the matter.
The options under consideration range from defensive support to help shield Saudi Arabia from attacks to sending forces into Yemen in an offensive role alongside Saudi-backed troops fighting the Houthis, the sources said.
The US official said Riyadh had asked Syria to deploy forces against the Houthis. Syria’s president’s media adviser, Ahmad Zaidan, rejected that claim in a post on X after this story was published.
Responding to a request for comment sent to Syria’s foreign ministry, a Syrian diplomat said Damascus firmly supported Saudi Arabia in confronting Houthi attacks but remained focused primarily on domestic priorities, including 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.
