Houthis target Riyadh airport a day after reopening

Yemen's Houthis said on Monday, October 26, that they had fired a ballistic missile at Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport, less than a day after it partly reopened following a two-week shutdown. The Saudi-led coalition said it shot the missile down and then hit Houthi missile launchers and storage sites inside Yemen (AFP via NAMPA; Al Arabiya). The new strikes show how hard it will be for Saudi Arabia to restart normal life in its capital while fighting with the group keeps escalating.nytimes.com+1

Claims and interceptions

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement on X that the group fired a missile at the airport. He said the Houthis also used drones to attack pumping stations on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, and he claimed the strikes "achieved their intended objectives." Those claims have not been independently verified. Saudi Arabia did not immediately confirm the attack on the pumping stations.english.aaj.tv+1

Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said "air defenses intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile" launched toward Riyadh. He later announced what he called a "qualitative operation" that destroyed five tunnels used to store ballistic missiles, four launchers and a missile storage facility. Earlier, the coalition said it had destroyed two launchers in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, including one used in the attack on Riyadh.dawn.com+1

A limited reopening

The airport had stopped operating on October 10 after a Houthi-claimed attack killed 13 people, the deadliest attack in the kingdom in more than a decade. It reopened on Sunday, with Terminal 1 handling domestic flights and Terminal 2 handling international flights run by national carriers. Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 still showed little traffic. Before the reopening, Saree warned airlines and travelers that the airport would "never be safe". The airport told passengers to "verify the status of their bookings and flights" before traveling.upi.com+1

According to Cirium data, 86% of the airport's scheduled flights have been cancelled since October 8. IndiGo InterGlobe Aviation Limited has extended its Riyadh cancellations to October 31, and Riyadh Air has moved several routes to Al Qassim.aerospaceglobalnews.com

A widening conflict

Saudi civil defense said shrapnel from intercepted missiles over Khamis Mushait and Ahad Rafidah injured two people on Sunday. The coalition said it intercepted 10 ballistic missiles fired toward southern Saudi Arabia. The fighting has broken a UN-brokered truce that had largely held since 2022. Saudi Arabia escalated its strikes after the Houthis seized territory on the Red Sea coast last month, near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The conflict is now tangled up with the US-Israeli offensive against Iran. The United Arab Emirates condemned the missile attacks, saying they violated Saudi sovereignty.business-standard.com+1