Houthi forces carried out missile and drone strikes targeting airports across Saudi Arabia and energy infrastructure in a new wave of attacks, with the group publicly claiming responsibility. The Saudi-led coalition announced plans for a counter-response as the conflict between the two sides continued.
An incident at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh left people injured, according to a statement from Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation. A statement from the coalition reported that an unidentified projectile had come down on the airport's passenger terminal, with crews on the ground working to bring a resulting fire under control.
A subsequent communiqué from GACA confirmed that King Fahd International Airport, located near Dammam in the Eastern Province, had also come under attack, with teams carrying out both damage assessments and safety inspections of the airport's facilities.
Four missile and drone strikes on airports and energy infrastructure across Saudi Arabia were attributed to the Houthi movement in statements covering the preceding 24-hour period. According to a statement from Yahya Sarea, the Houthi military's spokesperson, the attacks were directed at King Khalid International Airport, King Fahd International Airport, and a pair of facilities belonging to the Saudi energy company Aramco.
A separate statement from Sarea identified Saudi airports and airspace as targets for the group's operations, while airports serving Mecca and Medina were listed as the only locations excluded from that designation.
Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition struck territory under Houthi control in Yemen, with the alliance pledging a forceful response to attacks carried out by the Houthi forces. According to Sarea, a total of 124 air strikes attributed to Saudi warplanes had been conducted across the preceding 24-hour period, with Sanaa and the provinces of Taiz, Marib, Al-Jawf, Hajjah, Hodeidah, and Saada all listed among the areas hit.
Broadcasting through al-Masirah TV, which operates under Houthi authority, came an account of an airstrike attributed to Saudi forces striking Sanaa International Airport, the capital's main aviation facility, though no figures on casualties or the extent of any damage had yet been made available. Reports from a Yemeni military source, carried by a prominent broadcaster, described repeated aerial bombardment by Saudi aircraft over parts of Taiz province — a southwestern territory where clashes between the Houthi movement and government troops have been growing in frequency and intensity.
A Houthi strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday, which killed 12 people and left 309 others with injuries, drew condemnations from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres — who stated that he was deeply troubled by the attack and that directing strikes at civilians and civilian infrastructure runs counter to international law and must cease — as well as from the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Egypt, Türkiye, Israel, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Bahrain, and the Arab League, each of which issued formal statements against the Saturday assault.
Armed conflict has gripped Yemen since late 2014, when Houthi forces took control of the capital Sanaa and extended their hold across much of the country's northern territory. In 2015, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia entered the conflict on behalf of the Yemeni government — the body holding international recognition, which operates from the southern port city of Aden. Combat flared again once the UN-mediated ceasefire of 2022 had wound down the bulk of large-scale fighting, pushing the conflict to a more intense level than what that agreement had contained.