Houthis Warn Civilians to Evacuate Aramco Sites and Saudi Airports, Threatening Riyadh Retaliation if Sanaa Is Struck

Yemen's Houthis have warned all employees and civilians near Saudi Arabia's oil facilities to evacuate, calling the sites "a legitimate target". Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree issued the alert on Tuesday after the Saudi-led coalition urged civilians to leave the Yemeni Oil Company's al-Sabah central station in the Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa, ahead of a planned military operation.

Shortly after the coalition's order, Al Jazeera's team on the ground reported hearing explosions in Sanaa. Houthi-affiliated media said air strikes by Saudi-backed forces hit an oil facility in the al-Sabaha area of the capital. Saree said Houthi fighters were confronting Saudi-backed forces in Sanaa, and warned that any strike on Sanaa would draw a "harsh and painful" response in Riyadh. In a statement on X, he said the Houthis would target the sites they had ordered evacuated if the coalition went ahead with an attack on Sanaa.

The Houthis told civilians to evacuate the Aramco headquarters in Dammam, King Khalid International Airport, and an Aramco-affiliated refinery in Riyadh. An attack on King Khalid International Airport on Saturday left at least 13 people dead and more than 300 injured. Another person was killed and 11 wounded on Sunday when a projectile struck the airport. Smoke was also seen rising from a stationary aircraft at Riyadh airport on Thursday, October 8, according to a witness and three people briefed on the matter; Saudi authorities had not officially confirmed the incident.

Many international airlines have suspended flights to Saudi Arabia and neighbouring countries after the weekend attacks, including Air France-KLM, Air India, Etihad, Lufthansa, Delta, Gulf Air and Qatar Airways. On Tuesday the coalition said its forces intercepted three drones north of Riyadh. Saree also repeated the Houthis' warning to Saudi airports following recent attacks on multiple airports and oil facilities since last week, which are described as a spillover from the wider regional conflict between the US and Iran.

Saudi Arabia has in recent weeks launched strikes against the Houthis and is backing a Yemeni government counteroffensive known as the "Dawn of Yemen", after the group seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast last month.

The coalition's evacuation order for the al-Sabah station in Sanaa came ahead of a planned military operation, and the Houthi warning followed within the same day.

When a party to a conflict names specific airports and energy sites as targets and tells civilians to leave them, the risk picture for aviation changes character. It stops being a general advisory about a region and becomes a stated intent against identifiable facilities, which is the kind of signal that drives airline suspension decisions, war-risk insurance conditions and crew-safety reviews at the same moment. The suspensions already announced by carriers including Lufthansa, Delta and Qatar Airways show that process is under way.

For business aviation, the practical consequence is that Riyadh and the Eastern Province cannot be treated as ordinary destinations or fuel and technical stops while this threat stands. Charter and fractional planners typically hold flights until an operator's security and insurance teams clear a specific airport and corridor, and an airport with recent casualties and an explicit threat attached sits at the restrictive end of that spectrum.

The next milestone is whether the coalition proceeds with its planned operation in Sanaa, since the Houthi statement ties its threatened response in Riyadh to exactly that step. Saudi authorities have not officially confirmed the reported smoke at Riyadh airport on October 8, and any official account of that incident would sharpen the picture of the damage at the airport.