Three killed as Houthi missiles strike Riyadh airport, Saudi authorities say
Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority has said three Saudi nationals were killed in two attacks on Riyadh's international airport, after the Houthi movement in Yemen said it had targeted the facility with ballistic missiles.
The General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement that the attacks also caused "injuries to a number of Saudi citizens and residents of various nationalities". The first attack on Thursday struck the airport, it said, while the second hit an aircraft belonging to Saudia, the state carrier. The airline said one of its pilots was among those killed.
Air traffic at the airport had returned to normal, the authority added.
The Houthis said they had attacked the airport with two ballistic missiles. The group also said it had targeted an airport in Najran, near Saudi Arabia's border with Yemen, and Khamis Mushait air base further north. Saudi Arabia has not confirmed either of those two attacks.
Thursday's deaths follow the killing of three people in attacks on two Saudi airports on 6 and 7 October. Two people were killed and 28 wounded at Abha International Airport, the civil aviation body said, while another person was killed at King Khalid airport in Riyadh.
A Houthi military spokesman said the earlier attacks were a response to what he described as Saudi "aggression" against Yemen, which he said had included 60 air strikes and missile attacks within 24 hours. The group says it is targeting Saudi Arabia over its support for Yemen's internationally recognised government in the country's civil war.
The attacks mark an escalation in renewed fighting between Yemeni government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and the Houthis, who control most of the country's north-west.
The conflict has worsened in recent weeks after the Houthis seized strategically important stretches of Yemen's Red Sea coast in a rapid offensive, including the port of Mokha on the Bab al-Mandab Strait — the narrowest point of the Red Sea and a chokepoint for global shipping. Yemeni pro-government forces have since said they had "secured" the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.
A Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015, after Arab countries joined forces to stop the Houthis from taking over Yemen from its internationally recognised government. A temporary ceasefire was brokered in 2022 after years of air strikes and ground fighting that killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered what aid agencies describe as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. That informal truce began to unravel in July.
The Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, subsequently announced a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea. The group said it was retaliating against what it describes as a years-long Saudi blockade and an air strike on Sanaa airport.
The renewed fighting has raised concern over the impact on civilians in a country where, according to the United Nations, millions depend on humanitarian aid. Aid agencies have warned that disruption to Red Sea shipping routes can delay the delivery of food, fuel and medical supplies to Yemen.
