Two Saudi airports hit as Yemen fighting escalates

Saudi Arabia's airports in Jazan and Najran were targeted in two attacks on Monday evening, injuring three people and causing limited damage, the Saudi aviation authority said on 6 October. The attacks came as hostilities between the kingdom and Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis escalated, with Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces pressing a major offensive to retake territory after weeks of rebel advances.straitstimes.com+1

The attacks matter because they strike civilian aviation inside Saudi Arabia while a ground war runs along Yemen's western coast overlooking the Red Sea and the Bab Al Mandeb strait. The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation said it was assessing damage at King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Airport and Najran International Airport, and taking measures to ensure the safety of passengers and staff.

Two airports, three injuries

The authority reported three "minor injuries" and material damage at the two airports, both in the south of the kingdom close to the Yemeni border. It said it was assessing the damage and taking measures to ensure the safety of passengers and staff and maintain the security of the kingdom's civil aviation system.

The Houthis have responded to the Saudi-backed offensive with missile and drone attacks on targets in Saudi Arabia, including airports, oil facilities and military sites. On Monday night the group claimed attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, an Aramco refinery in Rabigh, Abha International Airport and the Khamis Mushait military base. Those claims could not be immediately verified.

Aviation monitoring platform FlightsRadar24 said flights to and from Riyadh's main airport were "on hold" on Tuesday, and the airport's website could not be accessed. Two Saudis in Riyadh said they heard explosions in the early evening on Monday. The US mission in the kingdom encouraged American citizens to "remain vigilant" over the "ongoing security situation in Saudi Arabia and the potential for aerial drone or missile attacks".

Claims that could not be verified

Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, said the government's new operation, Dawn of Yemen, announced on Sunday, aims to retake all remaining Houthi-held territory, including the capital Sanaa, which the Houthis have controlled since 2014. Government forces, backed by heavy Saudi air strikes, reached the outskirts of Mocha on Monday as Houthi fighters retreated towards the highlands, four government sources said.

Yemen's Defence Ministry said Mocha had fallen, and government forces claimed they secured control of the Bab Al Mandeb strait, the Dhubab area and Mokha. The Houthis denied losing those areas. A Houthi military spokesman said on Tuesday the group remained in control of its battlefield gains and described reports from its opponents as "fabricated heroics".

Where the fighting stands

Coalition spokesman Maj Gen Turki Al Malki said its forces destroyed a ballistic missile launch platform in Sanaa and a storage facility in Saada containing 20 ballistic missiles. Coalition naval forces carried out an operation in Hodeidah, destroying weapons depots, storage facilities for explosive-laden boats and naval mines, and thwarting a plot for imminent attacks targeting waterways in the southern Red Sea.

The escalation has a human cost measured by two agencies. The UN's migration agency said on Monday that more than 184,000 people have been displaced since the war resumed. The World Health Organization said the latest fighting has killed at least 959 people and wounded more than 4,200. Annette Heinzelmann, WHO's emergency director for the eastern Mediterranean region, said Yemen's latest escalation is pushing an already fragile health system towards breaking point.

On Monday, Turkey and Pakistan agreed to provide "military forces and capabilities" to Saudi Arabia as it faced Houthi attacks. Ministers and military commanders from the three countries met in Riyadh under the Makkah defence pact, and a joint statement said the committee decided to move immediately to practical implementation of collective commitments. The parliaments of both Pakistan and Turkey must approve the pact before their leaders can ratify it.

The battle for Mocha will shape the next phase. Fernando Carvajal, a former UN Security Council adviser on Yemen, said the port city is surrounded by Houthis from three sides with the Red Sea to its west, and that holding it would let government forces use it as a staging point against the Houthis on other fronts.

The Red Sea shipping route has assumed more importance this year as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed since the outbreak of the Iran war. The Saudi Civil Aviation Authority continued assessing damage at Jazan and Najran airports, while coalition strikes on Houthi positions in Sanaa and Hodeidah continued.