RIYADH (The Thursday Times) — Saudi air defences shot down a ballistic missile and a cruise missile fired by the Houthis at Riyadh on Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition said, in a night of attacks that also targeted the kingdom’s south and its oil-rich east.
Major General Turki al-Malki, the coalition’s spokesman, said a third ballistic missile fired towards the Southern Region was intercepted, along with a drone over the Eastern Region. Saudi Civil Defence sounded early-warning alerts in Riyadh and in the southern cities of Abha and Khamis Mushait, and later said the threat had passed.
The attacks came two days after shrapnel damaged an Aramco building in Riyadh when Houthi missiles were brought down over the capital.
Houthis claim hits on Riyadh airport and Abqaiq
Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, claimed the group had struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and an oil facility at Abqaiq in the Eastern Province. He also said the Houthis had attacked the East-West Pipeline in Riyadh Province, while denying a Saudi statement that they had hit the pipeline in the Medina region. Saudi state media reported on Monday that an attack there had caused a limited fire and that operations were not affected.
There was no sign of disruption at the airport the Houthis said they had hit. Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa landed at King Khalid International Airport on Tuesday and was welcomed there by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, before the two leaders held talks in Riyadh on regional security.
The pipeline matters well beyond Saudi Arabia. Since the war with Iran disrupted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Riyadh has used it to send about 4 million barrels of crude a day across the country to Yanbu on the Red Sea, roughly 4 per cent of global supply.
Saudi strikes on Sanaa and a government offensive
The Houthi-run Saba news agency said Saudi airstrikes hit Sanaa, the Yemeni capital the Houthis have held for more than a decade, striking a petrol station in the Jadar district north of the city and a building belonging to the state oil company in the south.
On the ground, Yemen’s government forces are pressing an offensive they call Operation Dawn of Yemen. Military spokesman Majed al-Nuzaili said troops had carried out 874 attacks on Houthi targets in a matter of hours, including 29 airstrikes and 39 drone strikes, killing or wounding about 190 Houthi commanders and fighters and destroying or damaging about 130 vehicles. He said troops had taken new high ground in Al-Jawf, while fighting went on in Marib, Taiz and Dhale.
Fighting between the Houthis and the coalition has escalated since September, when the Houthis pushed towards the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea. Yemen’s government says 21 foreign experts are working with the Houthis, 14 of them from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and seven from Hezbollah.
Pakistan, bound to Saudi Arabia by a mutual defence pact signed last year, has condemned the Houthi attacks on the kingdom and pledged to stand by it.
