Parents of students advised to return to remote education in Riyadh

Ariyadh schools will return to remote education, already imposed in October, before a brief return to classrooms, today indicated parents of students, after the intensification of the attacks of Yemeni Huthis on Saudi Arabia.

“In the context of the precautionary measures in force (...), classes will take place online from Tuesday”, reads a message sent by a school from the capital of the kingdom to parents, without specifying the expected duration of the measure.

The distance learning modality was applied on October 11 in the country, on the occasion of a lethal attack on the Saudi capital airport, and the return to the remote format takes place after only two days of classroom classes, according to the message sent to the parents of the students.

Since October, Saudi Arabia — and in particular its oil infrastructure and airports — has been almost daily the target of the Huthis, which have been fighting the Yemeni Government, supported by an international military coalition led by the Saudi kingdom since 2015.

The coalition, in turn, has repeatedly bombarded its positions and tonight indicated, through social network X, that it destroyed two factories and a production unit used by Huthis for the manufacture of ballistic missiles.

The conflict in Yemen was resumed in July, after four years of relative calm, opening a new front in the Middle East war triggered on 28 February by the United States and Israel's offensive to Tehran, which they justified with the inflexibility of the Islamic Republic in negotiations to put an end to the enrichment of uranium under its nuclear programme, which has always claimed to be intended for civil purposes only.

Hours before the decision to close the schools of Riyadh was made, the residents of the capital had already received an alert from the authorities about an “air threat”, which was suspended a few minutes later.

The Huthis, which control the capital of Yemen, Sanaa, and large parts of the country, have today not claimed attacks on the neighbouring country.

On the other hand, they reported Saudi attacks on an airport, currently inoperative, in Hodeida, a city under their control on the banks of the Red Sea.

On Sunday, the movement claimed to have targeted the commercial district of Riyadh, where a tower of the oil giant Aramco suffered damage, according to witnesses.

The Saudi authorities, in turn, reported an “attack attempt” to that building located in the capital’s financial district, a place that symbolizes the economic and social reforms underway in the kingdom.

According to the Huthis, the attack occurred one day after Saudi bombing a village east of Sana, which made at least 44 dead, including 21 children, indicated the Health Ministry of the movement.

In Yemen, the Huthis launched in September an offensive to the west of the country, which allowed them to consolidate their control over Bab el-Mandeb's narrow strategic, linking Europe to Asia through the Suez Canal.

The Huthis, whose official name is Ansar Allah, are a Shia majority political-religious movement militarily supported by Iran, since 2014 in civil war in Yemen with government troops, which a year later came to receive support from the Saudi-led international coalition.