PHOTO- Saudi Arabia says the Houthis launched Iranian ballistic missiles at the Riyadh airport
The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi militants said Saturday that the Iran-backed group fired a ballistic missile at Riyadh at dawn, after a fire broke out near the Saudi capital’s international airport.
Firefighters extinguished a blaze on a fuel tank with the logo of the Saudi oil giant Aramco at a fuel depot near Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, an Agence France-Presse journalist saw. Footage shared online and verified by AFP showed a column of black smoke above airport buildings.
In recent weeks, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have staged a lightning offensive, seizing swathes of territory in one of the world’s poorest countries, leaving the internationally-recognized government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, scrambling to respond.
Saudi Arabia’s air force “successfully intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi terrorist militia towards the city of Riyadh at dawn on Saturday,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki posted on X.
He said the Houthis also tried to target “civilians and civilian infrastructure in Bisha, Taif, Farasan, and Yanbu,” adding that the attacks “were thwarted by the Gulf monarchy’s air defenses.”
Saudi Arabia has responded with scores of airstrikes on Houthi-held areas, but failed to stop the advance.
The Houthis said it had responded to recent Saudi attacks by carrying out “two successful military operations using a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said, in a statement on Telegram.
“The first targeted sensitive sites in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the second targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu.”
Saudi authorities had earlier issued an overnight air raid alert.
Hours after the early morning alert, residents told AFP on condition of anonymity that they heard what sounded like a round of explosions echoing through parts of the Saudi capital.
Tracking website FlightRadar24 reported “major problems” at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, listing it for a while under its maximum disruption index, before normal traffic began to resume.
This is the first time since Yemen’s civil war resumed that strikes have threatened the Saudi capital, piling further pressure on a global economy already rocked by seven months of war between the U.S. and Iran.
The Houthis have reported scores of retaliatory strikes carried out daily by Riyadh since their offensive this month to take over Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast, giving them control over the vital Bab al-Mandab Strait.
AFP
