Yemen’s Houthi militia attacked jet-fuel storage tanks at Riyadh’s main airport early Saturday, their first strike on the Saudi capital since their unofficial truce with the Saudi regime collapsed in July.
A tall column of black smoke rose from the grounds of King Khalid International Airport.
No injuries were reported.
Saudi authorities prior to the attack issued an incoming missile and drone alert for Riyadh and the nearby city of Al Kharj.
Booms apparently from air defense were heard in the capital before authorities lifted the alert.
During the previous round of fighting with Saudi Arabia from 2015 to 2022, the Houthis occasionally staged missile and drone attacks against Riyadh as well as Dhahran and Dammam on the Gulf coast. The capital’s airport was targeted several times, killing one person.
Those places are now in Houthi sights again.
Since July, the Houthis have staged regular missile and drone attacks on military and oil industry targets in Najran, Jizan and Asir Provinces, located near the Yemeni border and the Red Sea.
They have staged more limited missile and drone attacks farther north against Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea hub of Jeddah and the nearby city of Taif.
Still farther up the Red Sea coast, they have targeted the port of Yanbu, the end point of the East-West Pipeline that carries crude from prolific oil fields on the Gulf coast.
As of Friday, one person had been killed and nearly 90 wounded in the attacks.
Partly in solidarity with Iran’s ongoing choking of Gulf Arab oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis on 19 July declared a blockade of Saudi ships in the Red Sea and began attacking the Kingdom’s oil tankers there.
In a lightning offensive, the Houthis early this month captured coastal towns and islands on Yemen’s southern Red Sea coast giving them command of the Bab el-Mandeb, the narrow waterway leading to the Indian Ocean.
At the same time, an Iraqi Shia militia linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) staged drone attacks on pumping stations of the East-West Pipeline, knocking it out of service.
With global fuel prices now surging due to the blows to Saudi oil exports, Iran may be content with the additional economic pressure on President Donald Trump.
But the Houthis are allied to Iran, not controlled by it.
Aiming to conquer more strategic territory in Yemen, they are continuing to attack forces of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
Angling to contain the strategic threat against it, Saudi Arabia continues to heavily bomb the Houthis from the air.
The air war between the Houthis and Saudi regime could continue for weeks or months.
If the current relatively low intensity combat between Iran and the United States in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz were to escalate, risks of IRGC missile and drone attacks on eastern Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arab countries would increase significantly.
It should be noted that the IRGC, based immediately across the Gulf, has far greater ability to strike Dammam and other points in eastern Saudi Arabia than the Houthis have.
Personnel may undertake important business travel to the Arabian Peninsula south of Turkey with the exceptions of Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
Personnel in Saudi Arabia should not visit the southwestern provinces of Najran, Jizan and Asir, which are prime targets for Houthi missile and drone attacks.
Personnel traveling to Saudi Arabia, the other Gulf Arab countries, Jordan or Israel should monitor regional tensions constantly. They and their employers should be cognizant that commercial flights could be disrupted if US-Iran hostilities escalate and that employers would bear the responsibility of repatriating stranded personnel.
Personnel in Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arab countries should steer well clear of US diplomatic facilities, oil and gas infrastructure, and military bases – all of which are potential missile and drone targets. They should monitor the advice of local authorities and their embassies. In the event of an air attack alert, personnel outdoors should seek shelter and those indoors should give wide berth to windows. High-rises are not ideal places to be during air attack alerts, and those in one should keep in mind that underground parking garages are relatively secure from drones but not immune and that stairways rather than elevators should be used in the event of drone attack or fire.
Personnel in Israel should remain well clear of the border with Lebanon, where a fragile truce is in place between Israeli troops and the local Shia militia Hizbollah, an Iranian proxy. They should familiarize themselves with the nearest bomb shelters and be prepared to heed air attack alerts and related instructions from authorities.
Personnel in Jordan should monitor advisories from local authorities and their embassies.
