Yemen’s Houthis claim new attacks on Saudi airports as conflict deepens

It is the second time this week that the Houthis have claimed to have attacked the main airport in the Saudi capital. Houthi supporters carry their rifles while attending an armed tribal rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman) (AFP) — The Houthis claimed a flurry of attacks on Saudi targets Wednesday, including firing a ballistic missile at Riyadh’s airport, as the group battles for territory in Yemen against government forces supported by the kingdom. The Houthis, who control most of northwestern Yemen, captured swaths of coastal land from Yemen’s pro-government forces last month after the country’s civil war reignited in July. The fighting has displaced more than 200,000 people within the country, the United Nations said Wednesday. Yemen’s internationally recognized government this week declared a counteroffensive and claims to have uprooted Houthi fighters from strategic areas along the Red Sea and in the port city of Mocha. But the Iran-backed Houthis say they are holding their territory, and military sources from both sides contacted by AFP have not reported any major changes on the ground. Claims by the warring parties have been impossible to verify independently because the situation is changing rapidly and access for journalists is difficult. “Our armed forces have just targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile. The strike was accurate, by God’s grace, and led to a disruption of air traffic,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said Wednesday in a post on X. The Saudi-led military coalition that backs Yemen’s government said the missile was intercepted. In a separate post, the Houthis also said they targeted a military supply convoy near the airport in the Yemeni city of Aden, the government’s interim capital. The Yemeni government’s Saba news agency reported that missiles and drones targeted that airport. The agency cited transport authorities as saying one of the missiles landed near the runway minutes before the scheduled arrival of a flight from Cairo, which was forced to divert to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Houthi drones and missiles also targeted Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport and King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, Saree said, claiming they had “hit their targets accurately.” It is the second time this week that the Houthis have claimed to have attacked the main airport in the Saudi capital. Airspace around the airport has faced frequent temporary closures, according to the tracking website Flightradar24, but Saudi authorities have not publicly acknowledged the closures or confirmed any strikes targeting the airport. Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has been fighting the Houthis since 2015 and is now trying to roll back the group’s latest advance. On Monday, the coalition said it was providing air support for the counteroffensive launched by Yemeni government forces. After a four-year ceasefire, Yemen’s civil war reignited in July. Last month, the Houthis seized the entire western coastline along the Red Sea in the country’s deadliest fighting in years. On Wednesday, new clashes in western Yemen left at least 62 combatants dead, including 37 Houthis, military sources from both camps told AFP. The government’s Saba news agency also said the Houthis fired a missile at the city of Taiz, which is held by government forces, wounding five civilians. “We went out into the street to check on the wounded and saw young civilians who had been hit. The Houthi shell landed in the middle of the street, right in an area crowded with civilians,” Taiz resident Al-Fateh al-Eisaei told AFP. Yemen’s government has announced a goal of retaking all Houthi territory — home to most of the country’s population and largely held by the group for more than a decade. The war has also caused a humanitarian crisis that has left most of the nation’s population dependent on aid. The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said Wednesday that more t