Saudi Arabia's King Khalid International Airport Partially Resumes Operations Amid Ongoing Houthi Attacks

Saudi Arabia said its mainairportresumed operations at two terminals on Sunday even as Yemen’s Iran-alignedHouthis vowed to keep striking the facility, which they called a“military target”. King Khalid InternationalAirportinRiyadhhad halted operations on October 10 following an attack claimed by theHouthis that killed 13 people, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade. Saudi Arabiasaid itintercepted another wave of missiles and drones on Sunday as fighting with the militant group continued unabated. TheHouthis said they had launched attacks on the air hub among other sites in the kingdom, including in Khamis Mushait and Jazan. It was not immediately clear if those were the strikes the kingdom said it had blocked. The conflict has become an increasingly destabilising element in the US-Israeli offensive against Iran, turning US ally Saudi Arabia into a pressure point in the wider war. FLIGHT TRACKING DATA SHOWS LITTLE TRAFFIC After Saudi authorities announced the partial resumption of operations at theairport,Houthimilitary spokesperson Yahya Saree vowed the facility would “never be safe” and urged airlines,airportstaff and travellers not to use it. Late on Saturday, theairportsaid Terminal 1 would be designated for domestic flights and Terminal 2 for international flights operated by national carriers starting Sunday. Despitethe announcement, flight tracking data from Flightradar24 showed little traffic at theairporton Sunday. The Saudi-led coalition said earlier this month that theHouthis had carried out 20 attacks on theairportbetween October 1 and 11. MISSILE AND DRONE ATTACKS CONTINUE Saudi civil defense said on Sunday that shrapnel from the interception of two ballistic missiles launched by theHouthis over Khamis Mushait and Ahad Rafidah injured two people and damaged residential buildings and vehicles. Civil defense authorities earlier issued emergency alerts forRiyadhand the cities of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran on Sunday, beforesaying minutes later that the danger had passed. The coalition said two drones and a ballistic missile were launched towardsRiyadh, and a cruise missile towards the southern city of Khamis Mushait. It later said it intercepted 10 ballistic missiles fired towards southern Saudi Arabia. The Houthissaid they attacked theairportand Saudi oil facilities on Saturday. Saudi authorities did not comment directly on theHouthistatements. Saudi Arabia has stepped up its strikes against theHouthis after the group seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast last month, closing in on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait – a global maritime chokepoint and shipping route for Gulf oil producers on the opposite side of ​the Arabian Peninsula to the Strait of Hormuz. Therenewedfighting in Yemen has shattered a UN-brokered truce that had largely held since 2022. Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 at the head of a coalition supporting the internationally recognised government, after theHouthis seized the capital Sanaa a year earlier. -Reuters