Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday that attacks on two major airports killed three people and injured dozens more, in an escalation of its renewed war against the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen.
The Saudi government did not specify who launched the attacks, which hit the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and the Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, said on Wednesday that the militia had attacked both airports with missiles or drones.
The Houthis have managed to inflict few known fatalities on Saudi territory in recent years, and the kingdom’s toll would be first confirmed at an airport in the capital, Riyadh. The attacks could presage worse fighting on both sides of the border, just as the Saudi-backed Yemeni government has declared war against the Houthis and presses a military operation to retake strategically important territory from the group.
“I think we will see the Saudis react even more aggressively than they have been doing,” said Farea Al-Muslimi, a Yemen specialist at Chatham House, a London-based research group, after the latest attacks.
Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Authority said the airport attacks occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday but did not specify when each was hit. Two women died and 28 people were injured at Abha, and a Sudanese man was killed and eight people injured at King Khalid, the kingdom’s statement said.
The renewed fighting has put Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, adversaries for over a decade, back in outright war. In 2015, a Saudi-led intervention in Yemen devolved into a grinding war that contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people from violence, hunger and disease, and failed to defeat the Houthis. A truce in 2022 established a fragile peace agreement until the conflict reignited.
The government of Yemen, backed by Saudi warplanes, began a military offensive this week to retake strategically important territory along the Red Sea from the Houthi militia, which is backed by Iran. A United Nations agency said Wednesday that nearly 200,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since early September, when fighting intensified.
On Wednesday, the Houthis fired missiles and drones at an airport in Aden, a government-controlled city in southern Yemen, and a spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition said it had intercepted a missile north of Saudi Arabia’s capital.
As the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran transformed into an economic contest over control of critical waterways like the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis began their own push into the Red Sea.
The militia, which controls much of northern Yemen, took aim at the Red Sea as an alternate shipping route for Saudi oil in July, declaring a blockade and attacking vessels. Last month, the Houthis gained more sway over the waterway by capturing Yemen’s Red Sea coast in a lightning offensive, trouncing the forces of the Saudi-backed government.
That Houthi triumph was a significant blow to Saudi Arabia, and it appears to have tipped the scales for Saudi decision makers, as they considered returning to all-out war with the Houthis.
The timing of the airport attacks were particularly sensitive. The Saudi authorities are planning to host several major international events in Riyadh this month, including the crown prince’s annual investment forum, which typically attracts billionaires and executives from around the world. It has been years since a Houthi strike killed anyone at a Saudi airport, analysts said.
The post 3 Killed and Dozens Injured in Attacks on Saudi Airports appeared first on New York Times.
