Yemen's Houthis said on Thursday they targeted King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh with a missile for a second time, as the group escalated its strikes on airports across the neighbouring kingdom.
"Our armed forces targeted King Khalid Airport in Riyadh at midday with a ballistic missile that hit its target," said the Houthis' military spokesman Yahya Saree.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the group said earlier on Thursday it had intercepted two missiles fired at the kingdom's capital, coalition spokesperson Major General Turki al-Malki posted on X.
Saudi Arabia’s civil defence agency reported "material damage" to buildings from falling shrapnel after the interceptions. Riyadh has not disclosed any further information on damage or casualties.
Several explosions echoed across Riyadh on Thursday morning, witnesses said.
Diplomats were instructed to shelter in place in their respective embassies, as witnesses said international schools were also taking precautions. Meanwhile, King Khalid Airport in Riyadh asked departing passengers to contact their airlines before coming to the airport.
"We would like to inform passengers of the necessity to contact their airlines directly and check their flight status before proceeding to the airport," it said in a statement posted on X.
A drone attack on the same airport earlier this week killed one person, with another two killed in a separate strike on the airport in the southwestern city of Abha, Riyadh said on Thursday, as flight delays continued into the second day.
The attack on Abha airport killed Moroccan and Algerian residents and wounded 28 other people, while the attack on King Khalid airport killed a Sudanese national and wounded eight other people, officials said.
The Saudi General Authority for Civil Aviation did not blame any party for the attacks at the two international airports.
In a subsequent statement, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis blamed them for the strikes and vowed a response.
"The brutal attacks by the terrorist Houthi militia on civilian and civilian objects in the kingdom, most recently targeting (the two airports) will not go unpunished," it wrote on X.
The spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, Major General Turki al-Malki, said forces intercepted a ballistic missile north of Riyadh and destroyed a platform in Yemen’s capital of Sana'a that had been used to launch attacks on the Saudi capital.
The group formally known as Ansar Allah has claimed repeated attacks targeting Saudi airports in recent days, along with salvos aimed at critical infrastructure and military sites across the kingdom.
Saree on Thursday also called on staff at oil facilities in Saudi Arabia to leave to avoid being targeted.
"Employees at all oil facilities must leave areas that are targets for our forces, so as not to endanger their lives," Saree wrote on X, also issuing a warning "to airlines, airports, travelers and their staff".
Strikes on Saudi facilities pose a threat to crucial shipping alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz, where traffic has been curtailed due to the Iran war.
In an earlier post, Saree warned international airlines "for the last time" over operating flights in Saudi airspace "which has become a theatre for our military operations, with the exception of the airspace over the sacred areas in Mecca ... and Medina."
Saudi Arabia has previously accused the Houthis of targeting Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, allegations the group rejected as "fabrications and lies propagated by the criminal al-Saud regime."
The Houthis are Zaydi Shia Muslims, a specific branch of Islam historically rooted in northern Yemen that is theologically distinct from both the Twelver Shia Islam dominant in Iran and Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi-influenced Sunni tradition.
Any confirmed attack on either Mecca or Medina would put the perpetrators beyond the pale in the eyes of virtually the entire Muslim world, Shia and Sunni alike.
Houthi strikes have further escalated as Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces launched a major ground and air offensive aimed at retaking territory that the group seized a month ago along Yemen’s western Red Sea coast and on the Bab el-Mandeb strait.
On Monday, officials said forces of the Saudi-led coalition recaptured several key areas around the strait, through which about 12% of global trade transits.
“The Houthis believe that they can maximise Saudi economic costs and compel Saudi Arabia to surrender to Houthi demands by striking civilian infrastructure, such as oil facilities and airports,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank wrote in an analysis.
RelatedThe fighting in Yemen has in recent weeks become the most active front of the wider regional war, which for months has seen violence repeatedly shift focus across the beleaguered Middle East.
More than 200,000 people have been displaced since the Yemen war escalated again in July, according to UN data.
