Attacks on Saudi airports claimed by Houthi rebels kill 3 people, officials say

CAIRO (AP) — Two attacks on airports in Saudi Arabia claimed by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen killed three people Wednesday, Saudi officials said, as the kingdom was pulled deeper into the latest front in the Iran war.

The Saudi General Authority for Civil Aviation did not blame any party for the attacks at Abha and Riyadh’s King Khalid international airports, but Houthi rebels took credit earlier for the airport strikes.

The attack on Abha airport killed Moroccan and Algerian residents and wounded 28 other people, while the attack on King Khalid airport killed a Sudanese national and wounded eight other people, officials said.

As Riyadh has been targeted over the past week, new cage-like fences have been erected around fuel tanks and other equipment of the Saudi state-run Aramco oil company near the capital's airport. The kingdom, the world’s top oil exporter, has seen oil and military assets targeted in recent days, posing a threat to crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where traffic has been curtailed due to the Iran war.

The spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, said forces intercepted a ballistic missile north of Riyadh and destroyed a platform in Yemen’s capital of Sana that had been used to launch attacks on the Saudi capital. The AP could not independently verify these claims.

Saudi Arabia and allied Yemeni forces launched a major ground and air offensive aimed at retaking territory that the rebels seized a month ago along Yemen’s western Red Sea coast and on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Those positions gave the Houthis better surveillance as they pursue a blockade of Saudi-linked shipping. On Monday, officials said forces of the Saudi-led coalition recaptured several key areas around the strait, through which about 12% of global trade transits.

Houthis push for strategic areas in Yemen

“The Houthis believe that they can maximize Saudi economic costs and compel Saudi Arabia to surrender to Houthi demands by striking civilian infrastructure, such as oil facilities and airports,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, wrote in an analysis.

Inside Yemen, fighting has centered in and around the crucial town of Dhubab, some 54 kilometers (33.5 miles) south of the port city of Mokha that the rebels seized last month, according to both the Houthis and Yemen's internationally recognized government.

Two Houthi officials said Wednesday that the rebels had regained control of key areas of Yemen’s southwestern coast, including Dhubab and the nearby village of Al-Jadid, as well as the Bab el-Mandeb strait, after intensified fighting with Saudi-backed coalition forces.

A government official denied the claims, which The Associated Press could not independently verify.

The Houthis also claimed that Saudi forces had targeted “civilian assets” over the past 24 hours in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, as well as Taiz, Jawf and other active fronts, including Saada and Marib.

Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said, without providing evidence, that fighter jets used in the attacks had taken off from Khamis Mushait and Taif in Saudi Arabia, while missiles had been launched from Najran and Jizan. The rebels have repeatedly claimed attacks on those Saudi cities in recent weeks.

Saudi-led coalition vows full support to Yemen government

Al-Malki has vowed “full operational support” to Yemeni government forces until the Houthis are “eliminated.” The coalition has said 100 fighter jets were providing support. Another aim is to liberate Sanaa, Yemen’s rebel-controlled capital.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi criticized Saudi Arabia over support for Yemen’s government forces in the latest escalation with the Houthis, which has shattered a truce reached four years ago.

Rebels are ready to support Palestinians in every way they can in case of “any new round of escalation” with Israel, al-Houthi said in a speech Wednesday expressing solidarity with Gaza on the third anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The offensive began after the rebels seized Turbah town on a main road linking the provincial capital of Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, with Aden, the seat of the internationally recognized government. Officials have said U.S. support has included intelligence sharing, target identification and planning.

The escalation has revived Yemen’s civil war after a four-year ceasefire. Almost 1,000 people have been killed in the latest fighting, with over 200,000 displaced, according to the United Nations. Cholera and malnutrition cases are increasing, access to trauma care is more difficult and some hospitals have shortages of surgical and other supplies, the World Health Organization said this week.