Houthis issue sharp warning against using Saudi airports after deadly attacks as new strikes reported
Sanaa, Yemen - Yemen's Houthis issued a new threat to Saudi Arabia's airspace on Sunday after an attack on the kingdom's international airport in Riyadh killed 12 people and wounded hundreds, forcing authorities to stop operations.
Saturday's attack, the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade, was a sharp escalation in the Yemen war, where Riyadh backs the internationally recognized government against the Houthis, who captured swathes of Red Sea coastline in a lightning offensive last month.
While the Iran-backed Houthis stopped short of claiming the strike, they threatened new attacks on the kingdom's airports, except for the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, warning passengers not to travel.
"The airports and airspace are exposed to targeting and constitute a theatre of operations for our forces," military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on X.
The strike came in a week when the group intensified its attacks on the Saudi capital's King Khalid International Airport, where three people were also killed on Thursday, as well as other key targets in the world's top crude oil exporter.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen attributed Saturday's attack to them, calling it a "full-fledged war crime."
A diplomatic source also attributed the strike to a Houthi missile.
The coalition vowed to respond, and on Sunday Houthi media reported two Saudi strikes in Yemen's Houthi-controlled Sanaa governorate.
The assault on Riyadh's airport drew condemnation from the United Nations and world leaders including President Donald Trump, who said he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis.
"We may. We're going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we'll make a decision," he told reporters.
Four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese were killed, Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority said.
It said some of the 309 wounded were in serious condition.
Two blasts were heard in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday, AFP journalists and three residents said.
AFP journalists heard a powerful explosion in central Riyadh, while three residents in the city's north later reported hearing another blast.
The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear.
"The birds went into a frenzy after the sound. The whole house shook," a resident in Al-Aarid neighbourhood in northern Riyadh told AFP.
Cover photo: AFPTV / AFP