Riyadh: Two attacks on airports in Saudi Arabia killed three people and wounded 36 on Wednesday, Saudi officials said, as the kingdom faced a widening threat from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen.
The Saudi General Authority for Civil Aviation did not attribute the attacks on Abha airport and Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport to any group. The Houthis, however, claimed responsibility for both strikes earlier in the day.
Two residents, from Morocco and Algeria, were killed and 28 others wounded in the attack on Abha airport, while a Sudanese national was killed and eight others wounded in the strike on King Khalid airport, officials said.
The attacks came as Saudi Arabia faced repeated strikes over the past week, prompting new security measures around oil infrastructure near Riyadh. Cage-like barriers have been erected around fuel tanks and other equipment belonging to state oil company Aramco near the capital’s airport.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, has also seen oil and military assets targeted in recent days, raising concerns over threats to shipping routes that provide an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where traffic has been curtailed amid the Iran war.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, said Saudi forces intercepted a ballistic missile north of Riyadh and destroyed a launch platform in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, that had been used to target the Saudi capital. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claims.
Saudi Arabia and allied Yemeni forces have meanwhile launched a major ground and air offensive to retake territory seized by the Houthis along Yemen’s western Red Sea coast and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The positions have provided the Houthis with greater surveillance capabilities as they seek to disrupt Saudi-linked shipping. Saudi-led coalition forces said on Monday they had recaptured several key areas around the strait, through which about 12% of global trade passes.
Houthis push for strategic areas in Yemen
Fighting in Yemen has centred around the strategic town of Dhubab, about 54 kilometres south of the port city of Mokha, which the Houthis seized last month.
Two Houthi officials said on Wednesday that the rebels had regained control of Dhubab, the nearby village of Al-Jadid and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait following intensified fighting with Saudi-backed coalition forces. A Yemeni government official denied the claims, which AP could not independently verify.
The Houthis also accused Saudi forces of targeting “civilian assets” in Sanaa, Taiz, Jawf, Saada and Marib over the previous 24 hours.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed, without providing evidence, that Saudi fighter jets involved in the strikes had taken off from Khamis Mushait and Taif, while missiles had been launched from Najran and Jizan.
The Houthis have repeatedly claimed attacks on those Saudi cities in recent weeks.
The Institute for the Study of War said in an analysis that the Houthis appeared to be seeking to increase the economic cost for Saudi Arabia and pressure Riyadh by targeting civilian infrastructure, including airports and oil facilities.
