Yemen’s Houthi militant group launched fresh attacks on Saudi Arabia and the seat of Yemen’s internationally-recognized government on Saturday after blaming the kingdom for strikes that the Iran-backed group said killed 17 people.
Saudi Arabia and the government it backs in Yemen have come under sustained attacks in recent weeks from the Houthis as a years-long truce broke down in the summer.
Over the past 24 hours, the Yemeni fighters said they targeted three Saudi airports including the international airport in capital Riyadh, energy installations, a pipeline and an air base.
Military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group launched missiles at “King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the capital of the Saudi enemy, in two phases”, the airports in Dammam in the east and Najran in the south.
The international airport on Saturday however said it would resume domestic and international flights “effective Sunday” in a post on X, after it was closed following several deadly attacks this month.
The Houthis also launched attacks on the southern Khamis Mushait air base as well as “crude oil pumping stations and the crude oil pipeline from east to west.”
The Saudi civil defense agency said it had also responded to falling debris in the Mecca and Medina regions on Saturday after intercepting two Houthi missiles. The Houthis denied targeting the cities, the two holiest in Islam, calling the Saudi claim a “huge lie.”
The Houthis also fired at the southern Yemeni city of Aden, the interim seat of the Saudi-backed government, saying they targeted a naval base and military camp overseen by Saudi forces.
The fresh attack claims came after the Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV channel accused the kingdom of separate strikes in Yemen that killed more than a dozen people. Riyadh has not claimed the alleged strikes.
Yemen’s civil war, pitting the Iran-backed Houthis against the Saudi-supported and internationally recognized-government, had been dormant since a ceasefire in 2022, but erupted again in July as the wider Middle East war has roiled the region.
