Three people were killed and dozens injured in attacks on two airports in Saudi Arabia

On Wednesday evening, the Saudi authorities announced that three people were killed and 36 others were injured in attacks that targeted Abha Airport and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, without specifying who carried them out.

The authority added that one of the two attacks occurred on Wednesday, while the other occurred on Tuesday, without providing details.

The Iranian-backed Ansar Allah "Houthis" group in Yemen had previously announced the targeting of the two airports.

The General Authority of Civil Aviation in Saudi Arabia said that the attack on Abha Airport resulted in the killing of two residents, an Egyptian and an Algerian, and the injury of 28 people, including two residents of Bangladeshi and Filipino nationalities.

At King Khalid Airport, a Sudanese resident was killed and eight people were injured, including five Saudis, two Egyptian residents, and a Pakistani resident. The injuries ranged from minor to severe, according to the same source.

On Wednesday, the Ansar Allah Houthi group announced that it had targeted Riyadh Airport with a ballistic missile, after Saudi Arabia announced that it had intercepted a missile north of the capital.

The Houthi spokesman said, via the X platform: “Our armed forces (..) were able to target King Khalid Airport in Riyadh with a number of drones (..) which led to the disruption of navigation at the airport.”

The "Flight Radar 24" website, which specializes in tracking air traffic, indicated temporary and repeated closures of the airport's airspace.

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The website reported that flights heading to Riyadh flew “in a waiting area away from the airport” for at least thirty minutes due to the cessation of landing planes at the airport, before operations at the airport resumed.

The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen had previously announced "the interception and destruction of a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis at Riyadh," without explicitly mentioning King Khalid Airport.

The official spokesman for the coalition forces, Major General Turki Al-Maliki, stated that a ballistic missile was intercepted and destroyed north of the city of Riyadh “launched by the terrorist Houthi militia,” stressing that the coalition “is tracking the launch pad with its intelligence system in the skies of Sana’a and will destroy it.”

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Meanwhile, two missiles fired by the Houthis targeted Aden International Airport in southern Yemen, according to what was reported by the media office of the Aden Security Authority, indicating that no casualties were recorded as a result of the attack.

The Yemeni Ministry of Transport condemned the attack that targeted "the runway and passenger lounge at Aden International Airport," explaining that the Houthis attacked the airport using two ballistic missiles and a number of explosive drones.

The ministry stated that one of the two missiles landed "near the airport runway a few minutes before the landing of a flight... coming from the Egyptian capital, Cairo... with civilian passengers on board."

She added: "The competent authorities were forced to take urgent and decisive measures to protect lives, which included canceling the landing of the Yemeni Airlines plane coming from Cairo and changing its course to Jeddah." She also explained that two planes that were on the airport runway were evacuated and moved away from the danger area for fear of being exposed to another target.

On the other hand, the military spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, announced that “Saudi military supplies that arrived at Badr camp near Aden International Airport” were targeted using ballistic missiles, pointing out that the attack resulted in “the death and injury of a number of Saudi officers.”

Sarie warned against "using Aden Civil Airport for any military purposes."

Hours after announcing the targeting of the airport, Yemeni Airlines confirmed that it was continuing to operate its flights according to the operational schedule, “while taking the necessary measures to choose the safest air routes and making any operational adjustments imposed by the circumstances,” according to what the Yemeni government’s “Saba” news agency reported.

The targeting of Aden Airport comes at a time when several Yemeni fronts are witnessing a widespread military escalation, coinciding with an attack launched by Saudi-backed government forces to reclaim areas controlled by the Houthis during the past weeks, especially on the western coast and around the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

"Saudi raids"

The military spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, said on Wednesday evening that Saudi Arabia “launched 156 air strikes and missiles, targeting the capital, Sana’a, and the governorates of Taiz, Saada, Al-Jawf, Ma’rib, and Amran” during the past 24 hours.

The leader of the Houthis, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said in a televised speech broadcast on the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah channel on Wednesday that the Saudi attacks amounted to "1,642 raids and missile bombardments targeting the infrastructure in Yemen over the past 3 months."

On Wednesday, the ongoing battles in western Yemen resulted in the killing of at least 62 people, including 37 Houthis and more than 25 members of the internationally recognized Yemeni government forces, according to what military sources from both sides told Agence France-Presse. Thus, the death toll on both sides since last Monday has risen to more than 330.

Diplomatically, the United Arab Emirates condemned the Houthis' continued targeting of "civilians and civilian and economic objects in the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in addition to targeting Saudi ships in the southern Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait," according to a statement by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The ministry said in the statement, “The continuation of this targeting represents a flagrant violation of Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty and a threat to its security and stability,” expressing its “full solidarity” with Saudi Arabia and its “support in everything that would preserve its security and stability.”

Accusations of war crimes

In another development, video recordings published by Yemeni government forces showed armored vehicles running over Houthi fighters during battles near Bab al-Mandab.

Reuters said that it had verified the recordings, which were filmed from inside armored vehicles, and showed vehicles hitting men, some of whom were armed, while others appeared to be unarmed, including people who were raising their hands, sitting, or lying on the ground.

The Houthis accused government forces of committing war crimes, and said the recordings showed the "true nature" of the forces fighting them.

The spokesman for the Giants Brigades, the main government force participating in the battles around Bab al-Mandab, said that the brigades are conducting an investigation into the incident. He added that the forces were informed that Houthi fighters were surrendering, before some of them opened fire on government forces.

The Saudi-led coalition did not immediately comment on the recordings or the accusations. On the other hand, the “National Shield” forces issued a directive to its fighters calling for treating prisoners well and adhering to religious, moral and legal standards.

Battles around Bab al-Mandab

Battles continued near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the most important maritime shipping lanes in the world, after government forces said they had regained areas that had fallen under the control of the Houthis last month.

Late Monday, government forces announced “victories on several fronts,” and military sources said they expelled the Houthis from several areas in Taiz Governorate, and also achieved progress in the south of Ma’rib Governorate.

But the Houthis denied losing any of the areas they controlled, and the group's military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said that its forces still fully control the areas they advanced to during the past month.

Saree added that the Houthis carried out dozens of attacks against government forces in Al-Jawf and Marib governorates, in addition to attacks in Taiz governorate.

It is not possible to independently verify the size of the gains announced by government forces or the Houthis’ narrative, in light of the rapidly changing field situation and the difficulty of journalists reaching combat areas.

The city of Taiz, the third largest city in Yemen, is witnessing fierce fighting, after the Houthi gains in a mountainous area during the past days led to the cutting of a main road linking the city to Aden, according to military sources.

She noted that "the pace of this crisis is alarming" in light of the lack of funding necessary to respond to humanitarian needs.

The escalation comes after about four years of relative calm in the Yemeni war, which broke out again in July, opening a new front within the broader regional conflict in the Middle East.

Last month, the Houthis took control of the entire western coast of Yemen on the Red Sea, in one of the bloodiest stages of fighting in the country in years, which raised concerns about global trade and oil and fuel prices.