Yemen’s Houthis said they attacked “sensitive” sites in the Saudi capital Riyadh with missiles and drones on Saturday, hours after flames and a large plume of smoke were seen near the city’s main airport. The reported strike marks a further escalation in fighting between the Iran-aligned group and Saudi Arabia, with attacks increasingly threatening cities and energy infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia had issued overnight alerts warning of potential danger around Riyadh as the latest escalation in Houthi attacks continued. Reuters video and photographs showed a huge pillar of black smoke rising in the area, with the airport highway, main terminal building and other facilities visible in the foreground. At one point, flames appeared to rise from behind what appeared to be fuel tanks.
The Houthis did not specify which sites in Riyadh they had targeted. They also said they had attacked an Aramco facility in Yanbu, the Red Sea city that serves as a key Saudi oil export hub. The group said the operation was carried out in response to an attack in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis said its air defences had destroyed a missile fired towards Riyadh early on Saturday. The coalition also said it had foiled attacks targeting civilians in Bish and Farasan in southwestern Saudi Arabia, Taif in the west and Yanbu on the Red Sea coast. It did not provide details on whether the attacks caused damage.
Saudi civil defence sent phone alerts overnight warning of possible aerial attacks in Riyadh and Al-Kharj, east of the capital, before issuing an all-clear on Saturday morning. A Reuters journalist in Riyadh’s Olaya area reported hearing booms before the all-clear was issued. The alerts were the first in Riyadh since the current escalation with the Houthis began in July, although some warnings had been issued earlier this year following the start of the US-Iran war.
The United States also issued a security alert on Saturday. The State Department cited Houthi attacks and urged Americans in the Middle East to “exercise heightened vigilance”, while advising Americans outside the region to “seriously reconsider travel to and through the region”.
The Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous areas and much of the north, have been attacking Saudi Arabia since declaring a naval blockade against Riyadh in July, including strikes against Saudi vessels in the Red Sea. Their attacks have extended to Saudi cities and energy infrastructure, raising concerns over global oil supplies and threatening the Red Sea route used for Gulf exports while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains blockaded.
The latest escalation followed remarks by Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree on Friday, when he said the group had foiled unspecified “criminal attempts” in Sanaa, blamed Saudi Arabia and vowed a response. The Houthis have also claimed that the Saudi Air Force has carried out hundreds of air strikes against them in recent days.
The confrontation has developed as a new theatre of conflict within the wider war that began with US and Israeli strikes against Iran at the end of February. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary, Mohsen Rezaei, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that Tehran wanted the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis to end and believed Yemenis also wanted a settlement with Saudi Arabia.
Rezaei said Iran had conveyed conditions to mediators for restarting stalled negotiations with the United States, including “ending the war on all fronts”. Consultations were continuing with Qatari and Pakistani mediators, he said, with Tehran awaiting a response from US President Donald Trump.
The UN Security Council on Friday “condemned in the strongest terms continued Houthi attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, including strikes affecting civilian and energy infrastructure that had resulted in civilian injuries. It also condemned the “Houthi military escalation in Yemen”, underscoring the growing international concern over the widening conflict.
