Houthi strikes on Riyadh airport killed three Saudis as war escalates

Thursday’s attacks on Riyadh airport killed three people, Saudi authorities said on Friday, as Yemen’s Houthi group ​stepped up missile strikes on the kingdom and tried to shut down its airspace in an escalating war ‌triggered by the US-Iran conflict. The strikes, which also injured several people, damaged a Saudia Airlines plane and sent smoke billowing over the airport, led many airlines to cancel flights to the Saudi capital days before it is due to host a major meeting of global oil chiefs.

Saudi airstrikes hit ​Houthi targets in the Yemeni capital Sanaa overnight, Houthi officials and affiliated media said, part of an intensifying air ​war against the Iran-allied group aimed at reversing its recent territorial gains, threats to international shipping, and ⁠attacks on the kingdom.

A Saudi-led coalition backing government forces in Yemen said it had destroyed three missile launch platforms used ​by the Houthis and warned it would respond firmly to attacks on civilians.

The Houthis, who have encircled Yemeni government forces in Yemen’s ​third-largest city of Taiz and are trying to defend positions on the Red Sea coast against a Saudi-backed offensive, had already killed three people with strikes on airports in the kingdom earlier this week.

BITTER FIGHTING INSIDE YEMEN Yemen’s civil war has rapidly emerged as the fiercest front in a ‌wider regional ⁠conflagration triggered by the US and Israeli attack on Iran that started on February 28.

The conflict is critical for global energy markets, with the Houthis firing on shipping in the Red Sea and its southern gateway the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, further squeezing Gulf oil supplies with Iran partly blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

Last month the Houthis staged a lightning advance down Yemen’s Red Sea ​coast to take full control ​over the coastline around the ⁠strait, prompting Saudi Arabia to re-enter the long-dormant conflict and back a government counteroffensive.