Saudi Arabia reopens Riyadh airport after Houthi attack kills three

Saudi Arabia has reopened Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport following attacks by the Houthis that killed three people and injured several.

In a statement on social media on Friday, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said attacks the previous day had hit airport facilities and an aircraft belonging to state carrier Saudia.

The Houthis have hit Saudi airports in several attacks this week as the armed group continues to face an offensive by the Riyadh-backed internationally recognised Yemen government.

The strikes on Thursday caused injuries ranging from minor to severe, as well as material damage, GACA said. Airport operations have now resumed and air traffic has returned to normal.

Saudia Airlines said one of its pilots was killed and an aircraft was damaged.

“It is with profound sadness that Saudia announces the passing of Captain Hamoud Ali Alkalthami,” the flag-carrier said in a statement, citing an “incident” at the Riyadh airport.

Saudi Arabia has seen several attacks by the Houthis in recent days, with the airports appearing to be the primary target.

GACA said Wednesday that attacks earlier in the week had killed three civilians and injured 36 at Abha and King Khalid airports. At least three people were also wounded in other attacks on Jazan and Najran airports near the Yemen border.

A Houthi military spokesperson said on Thursday that the armed group had launched a ballistic missile towards King Khalid airport, claiming that the missile had successfully hit its intended target, causing damage and disrupting air traffic.

The campaign appears to be a revival of a tactic seen last month.

On September 18, Saudi-led coalition forces said they intercepted and destroyed a suspected Houthi ballistic missile fired towards King Khalid airport.

A day later, at least one explosion was heard near the airport in Riyadh, and a large plume of black smoke was seen rising from a fuel storage area.

The Houthis have warned aviation companies to avoid using Saudi airspace, saying any aircraft operating in there, except over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, is a target.

‘Substantial forces’

The return to the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s airports comes as Yemeni forces continue a counteroffensive against the Houthis.

The push was launched after the Iran-aligned rebel group last month seized a broad swath of territory along the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, in a sudden push.

The Yemeni government forces this week claimed key gains around the Bab al-Mandeb coastline, but intense fighting continues.

The conflict, which was frozen for some years until it was brought back to life by the United States’ war on Iran, has stoked further upheaval in a region already destabilised by Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon.

It now threatens to draw other states into the conflict, with Pakistan and Turkiye having agreed to deploy troops under a mutual defence pact signed with Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

A spokesman for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that the country now has a “substantial number of forces as well as resources … in Riyadh”.

Pakistani military personnel “would not be crossing the borders of the other side for an attack on the Houthis, but of course (are acting) in the defence of the territory”, he noted.

Rocket launch platforms

The Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s government said on Friday that it had destroyed three rocket launch platforms that were used by the Houthis “to threaten regional security”.

Spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki declared that all Houthi attacks on civilians and civilian facilities “will be met with resolve” by the Saudi-led coalition.

On Thursday, the coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles heading in the direction of Riyadh, and one missile in the direction of the city of Khamis Mushait, close to the Yemeni border.

Earlier in the week, its armed forces carried out 97 “precise targeting operations” against Houthi reinforcements on the Tor al-Baha front and the Taiz axis, using warplanes, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers, it added.