An international airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital was reportedly attacked again on Saturday, days after Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed two attacks on the facility.
King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, was evacuated after a loud blast was heard, according to reports from two international news agencies, reports BBC.
Citing an eyewitness, Reuters reported that more than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing to the airport. Saudi authorities had not commented on the incident, while the airport advised passengers to check with their airlines before travelling.
The latest reported attack followed a statement by Saudi authorities a day earlier that three Saudi nationals, including a pilot, had been killed in two Houthi attacks the previous day.
Three more people were killed in Houthi attacks on two Saudi airports on 6 and 7 October.
The incidents come amid a sharp escalation in fighting between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces and the Houthis, who control most of the country’s north-west.
The Houthis say their attacks on Saudi Arabia are aimed at retaliating against Riyadh for its support for government forces in Yemen’s civil war.
The conflict escalated further after the Houthis launched a rapid offensive and seized strategically important stretches of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline.
The areas captured included the port of Mokha, near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a narrow passage connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and a critical route for international shipping.
Yemeni pro-government forces have since said they had “secured” the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.
A Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 after several Arab countries joined forces to prevent the Houthis from taking control of Yemen from its internationally recognised government.
Following years of air strikes and ground fighting that killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, a temporary ceasefire was brokered in 2022.
However, the informal truce began to unravel in July.
The Houthis subsequently announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and launched missile and drone attacks targeting Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.
The group said the attacks were retaliation for what it described as a years-long Saudi blockade and an air strike on Sanaa airport.
