RIYADH — Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed on Monday to have launched ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones against Riyadh’s international airport, an Aramco refinery and other Saudi targets, in their most sweeping retaliation since a Saudi-led coalition joined a major offensive to retake Houthi-held territory on the Red Sea coast.
Loud explosions rattled the Saudi capital on Monday evening, according to residents and regional reports, as the Iran-backed group said its strikes had disrupted air traffic at King Khalid International Airport and ignited a fire at the Aramco refinery in Rabigh, on the Red Sea coast west of Mecca.
Houthis warn airlines away from Saudi airspace
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the attacks were carried out in retaliation for Saudi military action in Yemen, claiming Saudi forces had conducted 60 air and missile strikes across the country during the preceding 24 hours.
According to the Houthi-run Saba news agency, the group said the first strike targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and was “precise and direct”, causing a disruption of air traffic. The second, it said, struck the Aramco refinery in Rabigh, “causing a fire breaking out at the targeted site”.
Further operations targeted Abha Airport, the Khamis Mushait air base, the Aqifa camp in Asir, and sites in Najran and Jizan, the group said. Saree warned international airlines against using Saudi airspace, declaring it had “become an operations zone for our forces”, with the exception of the skies over Mecca and Medina.
Coalition’s naval operation in Hodeidah
The Houthi claims came hours after the Saudi-led coalition announced a major naval operation in Yemen’s Hodeidah province on the Red Sea coast. Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said on X that naval forces had struck Houthi “military targets”, destroying weapons depots and facilities storing booby-trapped boats and naval mines.
Al-Maliki said the operation had thwarted a planned attack targeting waterways in the southern Red Sea, a chokepoint for oil and cargo shipping. The strikes formed part of a broader offensive — dubbed “Dawn of Yemen” — launched by the internationally recognised Yemeni government to reclaim territory held by the Houthis, who have controlled much of the country for more than a decade.
The Yemeni military said it had carried out more than 1,000 strikes and begun an offensive toward the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, while the Saudi-led coalition said 100 warplanes flew dawn sorties on Monday. Pro-government forces, including the Giants Brigades, pushed along the coast toward the strategic port city of Mokha in a flanking move intended to ease the threat to shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb strait.
Regional stakes rising
The escalation marks the deadliest fighting in Yemen in years. Last month, the Houthis seized swathes of coastline along the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb strait — the 18-mile-wide entrance to the Red Sea — raising fears in Riyadh, Europe and Washington of further disruption to regional oil supplies.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and Turkey pledged to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia under a new mutual defence pact following weeks of Houthi attacks, deepening the regional dimensions of a conflict that shows little sign of de-escalation.
