Saudi Arabia confirms 3 deaths in Huthis attacks on airports

Ohuthis had previously claimed missile and drone fire at Riyadh and Abha International Airport in the southwest of the kingdom.

According to Saudi Arabia's General Civil Aviation Authority, in the attacks, citizens of Egypt, Algeria and Sudan died, and 36 other people were injured, some in a serious state.

For its part, the Saudi-led military coalition claimed in a statement that it “destroyed the ballistic missile launch platform” used to carry out the attack against Riyadh airport.

On-site air traffic has been experiencing frequent interruptions for several days, according to the Flightradar24 monitoring website, while the Huthis have warned airlines that Saudi airspace is “not safe”.

The conflict between these rebels — which for over a decade control Yemeni capital, Sana, and vast areas of the country — and the government recognized by the international community and supported by Saudi Arabia rekindled in July after years of relative calm, becoming a new front of war in the Middle East.

Since then, 201,217 people “have been forced to leave their homes,” according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which warns of the lack of financial resources needed to address this new humanitarian crisis in the poorest country of the Arabian Peninsula.

In September, a Huthis lightning offensive allowed them to take control of the entire Yemeni coast facing the Red Sea and strengthen dominance over the narrow strategic Bab el-Mandeb, which links Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal.

Government forces, supported by Saudi fighter planes, launched a counter-offensive last weekend, claiming “victory on several fronts”.

However, the Huthis dispute these advances, and military sources on both sides heard by AFP did not report significant changes in the field.

The positions on each side are difficult to determine independently in areas of difficult access for journalists.

New clashes in western Yemen today have caused at least 62 deaths, according to military sources on both sides, raising to more than 330 the number of fighters killed since Monday.

The Saudi coalition has again bombarded several combatant-controlled regions during the night, including the Sana capital, according to the Huthis, which accounted for “1.642 air strikes and Saudi missiles in the last three months.”.

These, in turn, attacked a military base in the area of Aden airport in southern Yemen, where the government withdrew in 2015 at the beginning of the conflict.

According to the Ministry of Transport, a missile crashed near the airstrip minutes before the arrival of a Yemeni airline flight from Cairo, which had to be diverted to a Saudi airport.

The government news agency Saba also reported an attack on the great city of Taiz — controlled by government forces, but partially surrounded by the Huthis — leaving five civilians injured.

With difficulty in repeling the Huthis attacks, both in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Riyadh and his allies have repeatedly requested international support in recent weeks — especially in the United States — but without success so far.

Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia agreed to move “immediately towards implementation” of a defense agreement signed in August in Mecca. On Monday, they announced the intention to “provide the agreed military forces and means and quickly deploy them into the kingdom”.

The conflict continues to seriously affect the Saudi oil sector — Riyadh is the world’s largest exporter of crude oil — with regular Huthis attacks on the kingdom’s refineries and the Saudi fleet in the Red Sea.

The rebels said they hit the international airport of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and a refinery of the state oil company Aramco on Monday.