RIYADH/ISLAMABAD (MNN); Three people were killed and 36 others injured in attacks targeting two international airports in Saudi Arabia, including King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi authorities said Wednesday, after Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed responsibility for missile and drone strikes.
Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said Abha International Airport and King Khalid International Airport came under attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, targeting airport facilities. It did not identify those responsible.
An Egyptian and an Algerian national were killed at Abha airport, while a Sudanese national was killed at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, according to the authorities.
Among those wounded at Riyadh airport were five Saudi citizens, two Egyptians and a Pakistani national.
The Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government said it had destroyed the ballistic missile launch platform used in the attack on Riyadh.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had targeted King Khalid International Airport with a ballistic missile, claiming the strike disrupted air traffic. The Saudi-led coalition said the missile had been intercepted.
The Houthis also claimed attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport and King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, saying the targets had been hit.
In Yemen, the Houthis separately claimed an attack on a military supply convoy near Aden airport. Yemen’s Saba news agency reported that missiles and drones targeted the airport, with one missile landing near the runway shortly before the scheduled arrival of a flight from Cairo. The flight was diverted to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The latest attacks come amid a renewed escalation in Yemen’s civil war. The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Houthis since 2015 and is supporting a major counter-offensive by Yemeni government forces.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government has claimed that its forces have pushed Houthi fighters out of strategic areas along the Red Sea and around the port city of Mocha. The Houthis, however, maintain that they continue to hold their positions.
The rival battlefield claims could not be independently verified amid rapidly changing conditions and limited access for journalists.
The United Nations said Wednesday that more than 200,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen since the latest escalation began.
Military sources from both sides told AFP that fresh fighting in western Yemen on Wednesday killed at least 62 combatants, including 37 Houthis.
Yemen’s Saba news agency also reported that a Houthi missile strike on the government-held city of Taiz wounded five civilians.
Saudi Arabia has led a coalition against the Houthis since 2015. Yemen’s civil war, which had been subject to a four-year ceasefire, resumed in July, with the Houthis making significant territorial gains along the country’s western Red Sea coastline.
The renewed fighting has further aggravated Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, with a large majority of the population dependent on humanitarian assistance.
Residents displaced from areas affected by the fighting have described widespread fear and disruption, with reports that daily life in parts of the western coastal region has come to a standstill.
