The Ansar Allah Houthi group said on Thursday that it targeted King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with a ballistic missile, amid escalating fighting between it and Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen.
There was no immediate Saudi confirmation of the latest attack, which the group announced hours after the Saudi authorities announced the killing of three people and the wounding of 36 others in attacks targeting King Khalid and Abha airports on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The military spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, said that a missile hit Riyadh airport and disrupted its operations, renewing his warning to international airlines against continuing to use Saudi airspace.
This is the third time during the week that the group has announced targeting the airport, according to Agence France-Presse.
The escalation continues as the internationally recognized Yemeni government launches a counterattack, with Saudi air support, to reclaim areas recently controlled by the group on the western coast near the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Last month, the Ansar Allah Houthi group announced its control of the entire Yemeni coast overlooking the Red Sea.
The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation said, on Wednesday, that one person was killed (a Sudanese resident) and eight others were injured (five Saudis, two Egyptian residents, and a Pakistani resident) in an attack on King Khalid Airport, while two people were killed (an Egyptian and an Algerian resident) and 28 others were injured (including two Bangladeshi and Filipino residents) in an attack that targeted the facilities of Abha Airport.
The authority explained that the attacks occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday, without specifying the date of each of them. This toll precedes the announcement by the Ansar Allah group of its latest attack, Thursday.
The Saudi-led military coalition vowed to respond, saying that the attacks "will not go unpunished."
The coalition said that it responded to the attacks by striking 82 of the group’s military targets, which included missile installations, command centers, communications systems, and gatherings of fighters.
On Wednesday, the coalition announced the interception of a ballistic missile north of Riyadh, then said it had destroyed the launch pad used in the attack on the capital.
In Yemen, the Ministry of Transport of the internationally recognized government said that the Ansar Allah group attacked Aden International Airport on Wednesday with “two ballistic missiles and a number of explosive drones.”
She added that one of the two missiles landed near the runway minutes before the scheduled landing of a flight coming from Cairo with civilians on board. According to the Yemeni government's Saba news agency, the plane's destination was diverted to Jeddah.
For its part, the Ansar Allah group said that it targeted military supplies near the airport, which led to the killing and wounding of a number of Saudi officers, according to the statement.
On the ground, the battles are concentrated in areas near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, where government forces are trying to regain positions they lost in September.
Yemeni military and government sources told Reuters that the fighting on the western front is concentrated in the Dhubab district overlooking the strait, with attempts by government forces to advance in the heights located east of the coastal plain.
Yemeni media reported, at dawn on Thursday, that the National Shield Forces, the Giants Brigades, and the Joint Forces had tightened their control over the Kahboub front.
But the picture of field control is still unclear. The government announced progress in areas on the Red Sea and in Mokha, while the Ansar Allah Houthi group said it was maintaining its positions.
Reuters quoted Yemeni military officials and analysts as saying that the government’s announcement, on Monday, of the arrival of its forces in Mokha was premature.
Agence France-Presse said that military sources from both sides contacted it did not report any major changes on the ground, and that independent verification of the parties’ accounts is difficult due to the speed of developments and the difficulty of journalists’ access.
Military sources from both sides reported to Agence France-Presse that Wednesday's battles in western Yemen resulted in the killing of at least 62 fighters, including 37 from the Ansar Allah group.
The government's "Saba" agency also reported that five civilians were injured in a missile attack launched by the group on the city of Taiz.
The International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday that the number of displaced people since the start of the latest round of fighting has exceeded 200,000 people.
Its Director General, Amy Pope, warned that civilians were fleeing in search of safety without finding a safe place, calling for increased funding to meet food and shelter needs.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that cholera cases have tripled in recent weeks, including inside displacement camps, coinciding with the continued spread of measles, dengue fever and malaria.
He added that main roads linking Taiz Governorate to Al-Mokha, Al-Hudaydah, Aden and Sana'a are still closed, restricting the movement of civilians, goods and humanitarian aid, amid a shortage of basic materials and medical supplies and high prices for food and fuel.
The United Nations condemned the continuing attacks launched by the Ansar Allah Houthi group on Saudi Arabia, and called on all parties to exercise restraint, protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, and facilitate the arrival of aid.
Fighting renewed in Yemen in July, after years of relative calm following a truce in 2022, increasing pressure on a country where most of its population depends on aid.
Media Advisor to the Presidency of the Syrian Republic, Ahmed Muwafaq Zaidan, commented through his official account on the
