Yemen’s Houthis said on Saturday they had attacked “sensitive” sites in the Saudi capital Riyadh with missiles and drones, hours after flames and a large plume of black smoke were seen near the city’s main airport.
The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the group said its air defences destroyed a ballistic missile fired toward Riyadh at dawn. Coalition spokesperson Major-General Turki al-Maliki said the Houthis had also attempted to target civilians and civilian infrastructure in the cities of Bish and Farasan in the southwest and Taif in the west, as well as Yanbu, and that those attacks were thwarted.
Saudi authorities reported no casualties or damage. Residents near the airport described at least one explosion, and a Reuters journalist in Riyadh’s Olaya area heard booms before an all-clear was issued on Saturday morning. Saudi civil defence had sent phone alerts overnight warning of aerial danger in Riyadh and the city of Al-Kharj to the east.
It was the first air raid alert in Riyadh since fighting between the two sides escalated in July. Some earlier alerts had been issued this year following the start of the US-Iran war, but none since the current confrontation began.
The Houthis did not specify what they had targeted in Riyadh but said they had also struck an Aramco facility in the Red Sea port of Yanbu, a key oil export hub. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the operation was a response to an attack in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, which the group had blamed on Saudi Arabia a day earlier.
The Iran-aligned group controls the most populous parts of Yemen and much of the north. It has launched repeated attacks on Saudi Arabia since declaring a naval blockade against the kingdom in July, striking cities, energy infrastructure and shipping. The group says the Saudi Air Force has conducted hundreds of air strikes on Houthi positions in recent days.
On the ground, the armed forces of Yemen’s internationally recognised government said they repelled a Houthi infiltration attempt in southern Marib, killing 12 fighters, while 13 Yemeni soldiers were killed in two days of clashes in Taiz and Lahj. The renewed fighting spans Marib, Taiz, Lahj, al-Jawf and al-Bayda.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Saudi Arabia may have military needs due to the ongoing Houthi attacks and Turkey was ready to help under a trilateral defence pact that also includes Pakistan. The agreement signed last month stipulates that an armed attack on any of the three countries would be regarded as an attack on all of them.
US embassies in Jerusalem, Oman and Iraq issued security alerts urging American nationals in the Middle East to exercise heightened vigilance. Jordan, the United Nations and the Gulf Cooperation Council condemned the strikes.
The confrontation has developed alongside the wider conflict that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran at the end of February. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told Al Jazeera in an interview aired on Saturday that Tehran wanted the war between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis to end. Consultations were continuing with Qatari and Pakistani mediators, and Tehran was awaiting a response from US President Donald Trump on stalled negotiations, Rezaei said.