Saudi Coalition Hits 82 Houthi Targets After Deadly Airport Attacks
Riyadh says Houthi missiles and drones killed three foreign residents at Abha and Riyadh airports; the coalition struck back across four Yemeni provinces.
RIYADH — The Saudi-led coalition said it destroyed 82 Houthi military targets across four Yemeni provinces after Houthi missile and drone attacks on two Saudi international airports killed three people and wounded 36.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said Abha International Airport and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh were attacked on October 6 and 7. At Abha, near the Yemeni border, two women were killed and 28 people were injured; GACA identified the women as Moroccan and Algerian residents, according to the BBC and Al Jazeera. At Riyadh, a Sudanese resident was killed and eight people were hurt, five of them Saudi citizens. The aviation authority did not name an attacker.
The Houthi claims
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group targeted both airports with ballistic missiles and drones. He described the attacks as a “response to the Saudi aggression against our country,” citing what he said were “60 airstrikes and missile attacks in the past 24 hours,” the BBC reported.
On October 8, Saree claimed another ballistic missile strike on King Khalid International Airport that he said “accurately struck its target and disrupted airport operations.” The group also repeated a warning to airlines to avoid Saudi airspace, AFP reported via France 24. Saudi authorities had not publicly confirmed damage from that claimed strike in the reports reviewed by Peter’s World.
The coalition’s response
Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said forces intercepted a ballistic missile north of Riyadh and destroyed a launch platform in Sanaa that had been used against the Saudi capital, Al Jazeera reported.
He said the retaliatory strikes hit sites in Saada, Hodeidah, Al-Jawf and Marib, including 11 mountain-based ballistic missile storage facilities in Saada, command-and-control centers, communications systems, weapons depots and Houthi gathering sites. Attacks on civilian sites “will not go unpunished,” al-Maliki said, according to Gulf News. The coalition’s figures could not be independently verified.
Condemnations, and Turkey’s limits
The United Arab Emirates, Egypt, India and France condemned the airport attacks on October 8, Gulf News reported. India’s foreign ministry called the targeting of civilian infrastructure “completely unacceptable.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned “the continued Houthi cross-border attacks” and said he was “deeply concerned by the sharp escalation in fighting,” according to the BBC.
Turkey, which agreed this week with Pakistan to deploy forces to Saudi Arabia under their joint defense pact, ruled out offensive action in Yemen. “This is a defence agreement. This is not an offensive agreement,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said. “Turkey will not send its troops to another country’s territory to launch an attack.”
Air travel has been disrupted. Philippine Airlines canceled two Manila–Riyadh flights, citing the security situation, and the US Embassy in Riyadh issued a new alert urging Americans to “exercise heightened vigilance.”
Background
Fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed forces of Yemen’s internationally recognized government reignited in July. The Houthis seized long stretches of the Red Sea coast, including the port of Mokha on the Bab al-Mandab Strait, while the government has declared a campaign to retake all Houthi-held territory. The UN says more than 200,000 people have been displaced by the escalation.
What it means
Analysis: Fatal strikes on two civilian airports carry the Yemen war deeper into Saudi territory and raise the cost of the kingdom’s support for the government offensive. Fidan’s remarks narrow what the newly activated pact is likely to deliver: Turkish forces appear headed for defensive roles inside the kingdom, not operations in Yemen.
Sources
- Al Jazeera: Three killed, 36 injured in Houthi attacks on Saudi airports
- BBC: Three people killed in Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia airports
- Gulf News: Saudi-led coalition strikes 82 Houthi targets after airport attacks
Additional sources
- France 24/AFP: Saudi says three dead in airport attacks claimed by Houthis: Houthi claim on King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, Aden airport diversion, and AFP’s report that one Abha victim was Egyptian
