RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Houthi attacks on Monday evening struck two Saudi airports near the Yemeni border, wounding three people, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said Tuesday, as Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces pressed a major offensive to retake the Red Sea coast, Al Jazeera and BBC News reported.
King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz airport in Jazan and Najran airport were hit. “The attacks resulted in three minor injuries and material damage,” Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said, adding that specialized teams responded immediately. The Iran-aligned Houthis said their forces had targeted airports and military sites across southern Saudi Arabia. Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jassim al-Budaiwi called attacks on airports and civilian facilities “a dangerous escalation,” and Kuwait’s foreign ministry also condemned them.
The strikes came as Yemen’s military said its forces had captured the port city of Mokha and “secured” the Bab al-Mandab Strait with help from Saudi air strikes. The picture on the ground remained contested: government sources told Reuters and AFP that troops had reached only Mokha’s outskirts, while the Houthis denied losing either Mokha or the strait. The Saudi-led coalition said early Tuesday it destroyed a ballistic missile launch platform in Sanaa and a storage facility in Saada holding 20 ballistic missiles, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
The government offensive, dubbed Operation Yemen Dawn, was announced Sunday by Presidential Leadership Council chairman Rashad al-Alimi with the aim of retaking all Houthi-held territory, including the capital. Türkiye and Pakistan agreed with Saudi Arabia to activate “collective deterrence measures” under their joint defence pact and rapidly deploy forces to the kingdom, Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman said.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned “the continued Houthi cross-border attacks” on Saudi Arabia and said he was “deeply concerned by the sharp escalation in fighting.” A four-year-old informal ceasefire began unraveling in July, when the Houthis declared a “maritime embargo” on Saudi Arabia and started striking its airports, oil facilities and tankers.
Sources: Al Jazeera, BBC News
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