Yemen’s Houthis claim attack on Riyadh airport, deny losing territory

After a four-year ceasefire, Yemen’s long-running conflict has reignited during the wider Middle East war, which has roiled world energy markets and snarled trade routes. A vendor walks under a billboard showing Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi with a phrase that reads in Arabic: "The Saudi accusation against our people deserves to be described as the lie of the century" in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman) (AFP) — Yemen’s Houthis claimed an attack on the Saudi capital’s main airport and on Tuesday denied being pushed back by government forces, which have launched a major operation to recapture lost territory. The Houthi statements came as Yemen’s military said it had removed the pro-Iran group from areas around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a Red Sea chokepoint, and the port city of Mocha. Claims by both sides in Yemen have been impossible to verify independently, with the situation on the ground changing rapidly and access difficult for journalists. After a four-year ceasefire, Yemen’s long-running conflict has reignited during the wider Middle East war, which has roiled world energy markets and snarled trade routes. Sources on both sides told AFP on Tuesday that fighting across the country had killed more than 270 government troops and Houthi fighters over the past day. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group still held all territory seized last month when its fighters swept through coastal areas along the Red Sea, a vital global shipping route. Houthi fighters “have full control over all their advances on the ground,” he posted on Telegram. Saree said the group had carried out dozens of strikes in the past few hours targeting government forces in Yemen’s al-Jawf and Marib regions, while also attacking Taiz governorate. The Houthis’ health ministry, meanwhile, said Tuesday that a Saudi airstrike killed six members of the same family, including four children, in a village in Hajjah governorate, which borders Saudi Arabia. On Monday, the Houthis said they had struck Riyadh’s airport and a refinery belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco. Loud explosions rattled the Saudi capital Monday evening. They were followed by another explosion Tuesday that echoed through northern parts of the city, residents told AFP. Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport is facing frequent temporary closures of its airspace, according to tracking website Flightradar24. Saudi authorities have not publicly acknowledged the closures or confirmed any strikes targeting the facility. But on Tuesday, the civil aviation authority said at least three people were wounded in attacks on Jazan and Najran airports near the Yemen border a day earlier. Saudi Arabia, the main backer of the Yemeni government, has been providing air support for the counteroffensive launched by government forces. ‘Mocha is a war zone’ Government forces claimed late Monday that they had achieved “victories on several fronts.” But military sources with the government refrained from confirming Mocha’s recapture, saying only that they had cut the sole supply route to the area. They also said they had expelled the Houthis from several areas in Taiz in the southwest, where fighting has surged in recent days. Mohammed, a 33-year-old charity worker who fled Mocha for Aden, said “people there are terrified.” “Life in Mocha has come to a complete standstill — there is no movement at all. The city has become a war zone,” he told AFP. Yemen’s government has announced a goal of retaking all Houthi-held territory — home to most of the country’s population, with much of it held for more than a decade. Yemen’s civil war flared up again in July after years of relative calm, opening a new front in the wider Middle East war that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in February. The Houthis last month seized control of Yemen’s entire western coastline along the Red Sea in the country’s deadliest fighting in years. They have regularly targeted oil and mil