The Saudi Civil Defense announced, on Thursday, that a kindergarten and a medical clinic complex in the capital, Riyadh, were damaged as a result of falling fragments of a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis from Yemen and intercepted by Saudi air defenses, at a time when the group announced that it had targeted King Khalid International Airport twice within hours.
The Civil Defense said, in a statement published on the X platform, that emergency teams dealt with falling fragments of the missile after intercepting and destroying it, noting that material damage occurred in the two facilities. He did not clarify the nature of this damage or whether there were any injuries.
The announcement came hours after explosions were heard in Riyadh, and the Iranian-backed Ansar Allah group announced that it had targeted King Khalid International Airport with a ballistic missile on Thursday afternoon, in the second attack that the group announced it had carried out against the airport during the same day.
The military spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, said that the missile hit its target, caused damage to the airport, and disrupted air traffic there. The Saudi authorities did not confirm this story.
Meanwhile, Riyadh Airport called on travelers to check the status of their flights with airlines before heading there.
Residents in the Saudi capital reported hearing several explosions earlier Thursday, while Agence France-Presse quoted diplomats as saying that they had received instructions to take shelter inside their embassies.
Residents told the agency that international schools took precautionary measures, and one of them moved the children to an underground floor for their safety. Two employees at the King Abdullah Financial Center also reported that some companies have begun evacuating employees from their offices.
The Houthis renewed their warning to international airlines against using Saudi airspace, while threatening to target vital infrastructure and oil facilities in the Kingdom, the largest exporter of crude oil in the world.
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This comes after the Saudi authorities announced that three people were killed and 36 others injured in attacks targeting King Khalid International Airports in Riyadh and Abha on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Saudi-led coalition said it responded by striking 82 Houthi military targets in Yemen.
Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have escalated in recent weeks, with renewed fighting in Yemen between the Iranian-backed group and government forces backed by Riyadh, after years of calm that ended last July.
On Monday, the Yemeni government forces launched a military operation called "Yemen Dawn", with Saudi air support, to restore areas controlled by the Houthis. According to Agence France-Presse, the battles have resulted in the deaths of more than 330 people since the start of the operation.
The Saudi authorities’ acknowledgment of damage to civilian facilities is rare, as their statements in recent weeks have been limited to limited information about the repercussions of the Houthi attacks.
Riyadh is facing an unprecedented wave of attacks since the outbreak of war in the region late last February, following the American-Israeli attack on Iran, to which Tehran responded by targeting countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, saying that its attacks target bases used by American forces.
Deaths in attacks on two Saudi airports
The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation explained that the person killed in the King Khalid Airport attack was a Sudanese resident, while the person killed in the Abha Airport attack held Egyptian and Algerian nationalities.
She added that the injured in Riyadh were five Saudis, two Egyptian residents, and a Pakistani resident, while among the injured in Abha were two residents of Bangladeshi and Filipino nationalities.
The authority did not specify which of the two attacks took place on Tuesday and which on Wednesday, noting that the death toll it announced preceded the attacks claimed by the Houthis on Thursday.
The 82 targets that the Saudi-led coalition announced to bomb in Yemen included missile facilities, command centers, communications systems, and fighter gatherings.
On Wednesday, the coalition announced the interception of a ballistic missile north of Riyadh and the destruction of its launch pad.
Attack on Aden airport and battles near Bab al-Mandab
In Yemen, the Ministry of Transport of the internationally recognized government said that the Houthis attacked Aden International Airport on Wednesday with two ballistic missiles and a number of explosive drones.
She explained that one of the two missiles fell near the runway minutes before the scheduled landing of a passenger plane coming from Cairo, and its destination was diverted to Jeddah, according to the government-affiliated Yemeni news agency, "Saba."
On the other hand, the Houthis said that they targeted military supplies near the airport, and that the attack resulted in the killing and wounding of a number of Saudi officers.
On the ground, battles continue in western Yemen near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, as government forces seek to regain positions they lost last September.
The confrontations are concentrated in the Dhubab district overlooking the strait, amid attempts by government forces to advance towards the heights located east of the coastal plain, according to Yemeni military and government sources who spoke to Reuters.
Yemeni media reported, at dawn on Thursday, that the National Shield Forces, the Giants Brigades, and the Joint Forces had taken control of the Kahboub front.
But the situation on the ground is still unclear, amid conflicting news regarding the areas controlled by both parties. While the government announced progress in areas on the Red Sea coast and in Mokha, the Houthis confirmed that they were maintaining their positions.
Yemeni military officials and analysts who spoke to Reuters considered that the government’s announcement, on Monday, of the arrival of its forces in Mokha was premature.
Military sources from both sides who spoke to Agence France-Presse did not confirm the occurrence of major changes on the ground, while it is difficult to verify the accounts of both sides due to the speed of developments and the difficulty of journalists reaching combat areas.
According to military sources from both sides, at least 62 fighters were killed in Wednesday's battles in western Yemen, including 37 Houthis, according to Agence France-Presse.
In Taiz, five civilians were injured in a missile attack that the government "Saba" agency attributed to the Houthis.
Increased displacement and spread of diseases
The International Organization for Migration announced on Wednesday that more than 200,000 people have been displaced since the start of the latest round of fighting in Yemen.
The organization's Director-General, Amy Pope, warned that civilians were fleeing battles in search of safety without finding a safe haven, calling for increased funding to provide food and shelter for the displaced.
In light of the deteriorating humanitarian conditions, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that cholera cases have tripled in recent weeks, including in camps for the displaced, coinciding with the continued spread of measles, dengue fever and malaria.
He added that main roads linking Taiz Governorate to Mokha, Hodeidah, Aden, and Sanaa are still closed, hindering the movement of civilians and the transportation of 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 continued Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, and called on all parties to exercise restraint, protect civilians and civilian facilities, and facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid.
The fighting renewed in Yemen last July, after years of relative calm that followed the truce in 2022, which exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in a country where most of its population depends on aid.
The Turkish and Syrian positions
This came after Reuters reported, citing an American official and a Syrian military official familiar with the matter, that Damascus was considering providing military assistance to Riyadh.
The two sources told Reuters that the options include defensive aid to protect Saudi Arabia from attacks, or deploying forces to support Yemeni government forces in the fighting. The American official added that the Kingdom asked Syria to send forces to fight the group.
Media Advisor to the Presidency of the Syrian Republic, Ahmed Muwafaq Zaidan, commented through his official account on the
