Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Yemen’s Houthis said on Wednesday that they had targeted King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh with a ballistic missile, a claim that comes amid renewed tension in the long running conflict in Yemen and its spillover into Saudi Arabia.
A Houthi military spokesman said the strike led to a disruption of air traffic at the airport. The group added that it had also targeted military supplies at a camp near the airport in Aden, the capital of Yemen’s internationally recognised interim government. These claims have not been independently verified here, and no confirmation of damage or casualties at either location was immediately available.
The Houthi statement followed an announcement by the Saudi-led coalition that it had intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards northern Riyadh. The Iran-backed group also targeted Aden airport with missiles and drones, according to Yemen’s government.
The developments highlight the continuing volatility in the region. The Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, control the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, and have been fighting forces aligned with the internationally recognised government for years. A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in the conflict in 2015 in support of that government, and the Houthis have regularly launched missiles and drones towards Saudi territory since then, with infrastructure such as airports, oil facilities and military sites frequently cited as targets.
Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport is among the busiest in the kingdom and a key hub for air travel, serving millions of passengers every year, including a large number of Indian workers and pilgrims. Any threat to its operations therefore carries consequences well beyond the immediate security picture, as disruptions can ripple through flight schedules and travel plans across the region.
Aden, for its part, has served as the seat of the interim government after the Houthis took Sanaa, and its airport is a vital gateway for humanitarian supplies and official travel. Attacks on such facilities raise concern among aid agencies, which have long warned that the conflict has produced one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises.
Analysts note that the Houthis’ use of ballistic missiles and drones against distant targets demonstrates both the reach of their arsenal and the way a regional rivalry involving Iran and Saudi Arabia continues to play out through proxies. Efforts at peace talks and truces have produced intermittent calm in the past but have repeatedly been strained by incidents of this kind.
There was no immediate word on further retaliation, and the situation is being closely watched by governments and airlines in the region.
