THE NEW YORK TIMES: Houthi militia claim attack on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital in major escalation

The Houthi militia in Yemen said on Saturday that it had attacked Saudi Arabia’s capital and oil facilities with a barrage of missiles and drones, a significant escalation in the renewed war between the kingdom and the Iranian-backed group.

The Saudis intercepted a Houthi missile launched toward Riyadh, the capital, according to Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen.

He added in a statement that air defences had fended off assaults on “civilians and civilian infrastructure” in several other cities in the kingdom, including coastal Yanbu, where the Houthis said they attacked oil facilities.

The Houthi strikes, the first on Riyadh in months, left the city on edge. Emergency alerts sounded in Riyadh earlier on Saturday, with residents reporting loud explosions, and flights were severely disrupted at the city’s airport. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Houthis and Saudi Arabia have accused each other of mounting intensifying attacks in recent weeks. Strikes on Saudi Arabia have disrupted critical oil infrastructure, fuelling alarm over threats to global energy supplies.

Yahya Saree, a spokesperson for the Houthi military, said the group had fired a “large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones” targeting “sensitive sites” in Riyadh and facilities for Saudi Arabia’s national oil company in Yanbu, a crucial Red Sea terminal. Mr Saree said the attacks were retaliation for more than 700 Saudi airstrikes in Yemen, where the kingdom has been backing government forces trying to wrest back territory from a lightning Houthi offensive.

Saudi Arabia has not acknowledged launching any airstrikes in recent days, and Saudi officials generally say that such strikes are being carried out by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. Saudi authorities did not respond to a request for comment Saturday, but Al-Maliki said in his statement Saturday that the Houthi attacks demonstrated the militia’s “intransigence.”

Starting in 2015, Saudi Arabia led a disastrous bombing campaign to rout the Houthis but failed to push the group out of power, leaving Yemen in the fragmented control of government forces and the militants. A truce reached in 2022 has unravelled amid worsening fighting in recent months, as the Houthis have sought to seize strategic territory in Yemen and enforce a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea.

But the attacks on Riyadh were a “huge” escalation, said Farea Al-Muslimi, a Yemen specialist at Chatham House, a London-based research group. He said they reflected that the “Houthis are not going to stop anywhere,” particularly at a time when they feel emboldened by recent battlefield victories.

In his statement, Mr Saree said that the group was pursuing a policy of “escalation for escalation” until Saudi Arabia stops its “aggression” in Yemen and lifts restrictions on Yemeni airspace, which the militia refers to as a blockade.

FlightRadar24, a flight tracking website, showed major delays Saturday afternoon at the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. Photographs and video by the Reuters news agency showed a plume of smoke rising in the vicinity of the airport.

Overnight, Riyadh residents received two emergency alerts warning of a “hostile aerial threat.” On Saturday, two booms rattled western Riyadh, home to a diplomatic quarter hosting foreign embassies. Saudi Civil Defence officials said early-warning systems were also activated in nine other cities.

It was the first time alerts were sounded in Riyadh since tensions with the Houthis flared in July. Recent strikes had largely targeted southern Saudi cities, sparing the capital, where Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is scheduled to host the Future Investment Initiative, a major gathering of billionaires and international financiers, next month.

The reported explosions in Riyadh followed Houthi accusations Friday that Saudi Arabia had attempted a “criminal” attack on Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, which the Houthis seized in 2014. Mr Saree said the group had foiled the attacks, without detailing their nature.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s air defences intercepted a Houthi drone approaching Mecca, Saudi authorities said — a direct accusation that the militia had targeted Islam’s holiest site. Abdulmalik al-Houthi, the movement’s leader, dismissed the assertion as “slander and fabrication.”

The Houthis also claimed on Wednesday that they had shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet over Marib province, Yemen, using a locally made missile.

The hostilities are the most dangerous since the 2022 truce frayed. Fighting reignited in July after the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of bombing Sanaa’s airport to prevent an Iranian aircraft from landing. In response, the Houthis launched drone and ballistic missile barrages at Saudi military bases, ports and airports, while targeting oil tankers in the Red Sea in what they called a naval blockade

The Houthis have reported several Saudi air raids on their positions in several provinces. Domestic fighting in Yemen has also intensified following the Houthi capture of the country’s entire western Red Sea coastline, heightening risks for the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital global trade choke point.