Houthis claim new strikes on Saudi airports and Aramco facilities, declare Saudi airspace unsafe amid international condemnation

Yemen's Houthi forces said on Sunday they carried out four operations over 24 hours, using ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones against Saudi airports and energy infrastructure. They declared Saudi airspace unsafe, with the exception of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. In a statement posted on Telegram, military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the strikes were retaliation for 124 coalition airstrikes in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total since the escalation began to 2,058.

The Houthi statement named King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the Shugadam gas facility and the Tanajib refinery, both belonging to Aramco in the Eastern Province, and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam. The group claimed that air traffic was disrupted at the Riyadh and Dammam airports, that Riyadh's airport was completely closed, and that fires broke out at the Aramco sites. It also claimed strikes with six ballistic missiles and two drones on Saudi troop concentrations in the Ras al-Ara and al-Saqiya areas. The Houthis warned international companies, workers and travellers not to operate flights to Saudi airports, other than those serving Mecca and Medina, and said they would continue "escalating operations deep inside Saudi" until the aggression stops and the siege on Yemen is lifted.

On Sunday, Terminal 4 at King Khalid International Airport was hit by an unidentified projectile that started a fire, the second attack on the airport within 24 hours and the third that week. Coalition spokesperson Major General Turki Al-Malki said Saudi air defences also intercepted a cruise missile near the airport; his remarks were carried by the Saudi Press Agency. The previous day's attack at the same airport left 12 people dead and more than 300 injured. Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported new Saudi air and missile strikes on Houthi-held areas of Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack as terrorism and offered condolences. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the attacks took numerous lives, including an American citizen, and expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia. Asked whether the US would join Saudi strikes, President Donald Trump said, "We may." The US Mission in Saudi Arabia told American nationals to avoid King Khalid International Airport and nearby areas, warned of possible flight cancellations and airspace restrictions at major Saudi airports, and said US government personnel need special authorisation.

A warning addressed directly to international companies and travellers changes the nature of the risk for civil aviation. Attacks on a single airport are an operational disruption; a declaration that a whole national airspace is unsafe, repeated against the same Riyadh terminal three times in one week, is a standing threat that flight planning, crew policy and insurance underwriting have to absorb. Because the Houthi claims of closures and fires come from the group itself, the practical picture depends on what Saudi authorities and airport operators confirm.

For business aviation, the exposure runs through airport access and fuel supply as much as through the airspace itself. Operators serving Riyadh and Dammam depend on those two fields staying open, and Aramco sites named in the strikes sit in the same Eastern Province region as Dammam. The carve-out for Mecca and Medina shows the threat is selective by destination, which makes route choice and alternate-airport planning part of the risk assessment.

The next signals are concrete: whether the US Mission's warning of flight cancellations and airspace restrictions at major Saudi airports turns into formal notices, and whether Washington acts on Trump's "We may" by joining Saudi strikes.