Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: The Ansar Allah claimed a flurry of attacks on Saudi targets on Wednesday including firing a ballistic missile at Riyadh airport, as the group battles for territory in Yemen against government forces supported by the kingdom.
The Ansar Allah, who control most of northwest Yemen, captured swathes of coastal land from Yemen’s pro-government forces last month after the country’s civil war reignited in July.
The internationally recognised government this week declared a counter-offensive and claims to have uprooted Ansar Allah fighters from strategic areas on the Red Sea and the port city of Mocha.
But the Iran-backed Houthis say they are holding their territory, and military sources from both sides contacted by AFP have not reported any major changes on the ground.
Claims by both sides have been impossible to independently verify with the situation moving fast and access for journalists difficult.
“Our armed forces have just targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile. The strike was accurate, by God’s grace, and led to a disruption of air traffic,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said Wednesday in a post on X.
The Saudi-led military coalition that backs Yemen’s government said the missile was intercepted.
In a separate post the Houthis also said they targeted military supplies at a camp area near the airport in the Yemeni city of Aden, the interim capital for the government.
The Yemeni government’s Saba news agency reported missiles and drones targeting that airport.
Saree earlier said drones and missiles also targeted Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport and King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait and had “hit their targets accurately”.
It is the second time this week that the Ansar Allah claimed to have attacked the main airport in the Saudi capital.
It is facing frequent temporary closures of its airspace, according to tracking website Flightradar24, but Saudi authorities have not publicly acknowledged the closures or confirmed any strikes targeting the facility.
– ‘Terrified’ –
Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has been fighting the Houthis since 2015, and is now trying to roll back the group’s latest advance.
On Monday, the coalition said it was providing air support for the counter-offensive launched by the Yemeni government forces.
After a four-year ceasefire, Yemen’s civil war re-erupted in July. Last month the Houthis seized the entire western coastline along the Red Sea in the country’s deadliest fighting in years.
The renewed violence has also deepened the wider Middle East war, which has roiled world energy markets and snarled shipping routes in the region.
Yemen’s government has announced a goal of retaking all Ansar Allah territory — home to most of the country’s population, and much of it held for more than a decade.
On Tuesday sources on both sides told AFP that fighting across the country had killed more than 270 government troops and Houthi fighters over the past day alone.
The Yemen conflict has also caused a dire humanitarian crisis that left most of the nation’s population dependent on aid.
More than 184,000 people have been displaced by the latest fighting, according to the United Nations.
Mohammed, a 33-year-old charity worker who fled from Mocha to Aden, told AFP on Tuesday that “people there are terrified”.
“Life in Mocha has come to a complete standstill — there is no movement at all. The city has become a war zone,” he said.
