Houthis strike Saudi airports again as regional tensions escalate

King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was still closed on Sunday when the next strike came. A day earlier, a Houthi attack had killed twelve people and wounded hundreds. Now, in the afternoon hours, the rebel group struck again. At least one person died in the second assault—a Pakistani national, Saudi aviation authorities confirmed—and eleven others were injured. Across the country, Dammam airport in the eastern region was also hit. The pattern was unmistakable: the Houthis were not finished.

The Yemen-based rebel group claimed responsibility within hours, saying they had executed four separate operations over the previous twenty-four hours using ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones. Their targets were precise: Riyadh airport multiple times, Dammam airport, and two facilities belonging to Saudi Aramco, the state oil company. A Saudi-led coalition spokesman said air defense systems had intercepted a cruise missile near the Riyadh airport, though he offered no additional details about the effectiveness of the interception or the full scope of the damage.

But the Houthis had already made their intentions clear before the Sunday strikes landed. Hours earlier, the group had issued a stark warning to airlines, airport workers, and travelers: avoid Saudi airspace entirely. "We renew our warning to all airlines, experts, employees, workers and travelers against using Saudi airports and airspace, as they are vulnerable to attack and have become a theater of operations for our forces," their statement read. They added a single exception—the holy cities of Mecca and Medina would not be targeted. The message was both a threat and a demand: take us seriously, or Saudi Arabia bears the responsibility for what happens next.

The escalation did not emerge from nowhere. Saudi Arabia had intensified its military campaign in Yemen in recent weeks, launching strikes against the Houthis and backing a Yemeni government offensive after the rebels seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast, including positions near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world's most vital shipping channels. The Houthi-run health authority claimed that ninety-one Yemenis had been killed by the Saudi-led coalition over the previous five weeks, with sixty percent of them women and children. On Sunday alone, they reported a child killed and six people wounded in what they said was a Saudi airstrike on a house in Sanaa. The Houthis also said Saudi forces had struck Sanaa's international airport that same afternoon.

The rebel group, backed by Iran, framed their attacks as retaliation. "Unless the Saudi enemy stops its aggression and interference in Yemen, worse is yet to come, God willing," the Houthi Foreign Ministry said through their media outlet Al Masirah TV. They invoked the principle of reciprocity—a warning that the cycle would continue as long as Saudi operations did.

Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners responded with fury. The coalition called the attacks a "full-fledged war crime" and vowed a harsh response. President Donald Trump said the attack was "not acceptable" and indicated the United States was considering joining Saudi strikes against the rebels. European leaders expressed shock and alarm. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, warned that the attacks were "pushing the region into a spiral of violence" and destabilizing "crucial global transport and energy nodes." Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called it a "terrorist act." The UK Defense Secretary described the strikes as "contemptible" and a "dangerous escalation." France condemned the "heinous attack" and pledged solidarity with Saudi Arabia. Even Russia, a strategic partner of Iran, condemned the Houthis and called for an end to hostilities through diplomatic channels. Australia urged its citizens in Riyadh to shelter in place.

The conflict that had frozen in 2022 under a truce was now burning again, caught in the larger currents of regional tension. The Houthis, one of Tehran's proxies, had been fighting Yemen's internationally recognized government since a civil war erupted more than a decade ago. The truce had held for a time but never produced a lasting peace. Now, with the US-Israeli conflict with Iran heating up, the fighting in Yemen had reignited with new intensity, compounding what was already a severe humanitarian catastrophe. The airports of Saudi Arabia had become, as the Houthis said, a theater of operations. The question was no longer whether more strikes would come, but when.