Yemen’s Houthis said they attacked “sensitive” sites in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, with missiles and drones on Saturday, hours after flames and a large plume of smoke were seen near the city’s main airport.
Saudi Arabia had issued overnight alerts warning of potential danger around Riyadh amid an escalation in Houthi attacks against the kingdom.
Reuters video and photographs showed a large column of black smoke rising near King Khalid International Airport, with the airport highway and terminal visible in the foreground. Flames were also seen rising from an area that appeared to contain fuel tanks.
The Houthis did not specify the sites targeted in Riyadh but said they had also attacked an Aramco facility in Yanbu, a key Saudi oil export hub on the Red Sea coast.
The group said the attacks were in response to an assault in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis said its air defences had intercepted and destroyed a missile fired towards Riyadh early on Saturday.
The coalition also said it had thwarted attacks targeting civilians in Bish and Farasan in southwestern Saudi Arabia, Taif in the west and Yanbu, but did not say whether the attacks caused damage.
Saudi civil defence authorities sent alerts by phone overnight warning of possible aerial attacks in Riyadh and Al-Kharj, east of the capital, before issuing an all-clear on Saturday morning. A Reuters journalist in Riyadh’s Olaya district heard explosions before the all-clear was issued.
The alerts were the first in Riyadh since the latest escalation with the Houthis began in July, although warnings had been issued earlier this year following the start of the US-Iran war.
Houthi attacks threaten energy supplies
The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen and the country’s most populous areas, have stepped up attacks against Saudi Arabia since declaring a naval blockade against Riyadh in July.
The attacks have targeted Saudi cities, energy infrastructure and shipping, raising concerns over global oil supplies and the Red Sea route for Gulf exports while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that Saudi Arabia could have military needs because of the ongoing Houthi attacks and that Turkey was ready to provide assistance under a trilateral defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Fidan did not specify the nature of the possible support.
The agreement, signed last month, provides that an armed attack against any of the three countries would be regarded as an attack against all three.
On Friday, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had foiled unspecified “criminal attempts” in Sanaa, blaming Saudi Arabia and vowing retaliation.
The Iran-aligned group, which seized Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast in a rapid advance this month, said the Saudi Air Force had carried out hundreds of airstrikes against it in recent days.
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The fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis has emerged as another theatre in the wider conflict that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran at the end of February. US President Donald Trump has rejected Saudi requests for direct US military intervention against the Houthis.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday that Tehran wanted the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis to end and believed Yemenis also wanted a settlement with Riyadh.
Rezaei said Iran had conveyed its conditions to mediators for resuming stalled negotiations with the United States, including an end to the war on all fronts.
He said consultations with Qatari and Pakistani mediators were continuing and that Tehran was awaiting a response from Trump.
The UN Security Council on Friday condemned continued Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia, including strikes affecting civilian and energy infrastructure that had injured civilians, including women and children.
The council also condemned the group’s military escalation in Yemen.
