Saudi Arabia’s energy minister acknowledged on Monday that the kingdom’s infrastructure and resilience had been tested, as he vowed a firm response following a wave of deadly attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.
The Houthi attacks over the weekend marked a sharp escalation in the Yemen war, where Saudi Arabia has long supported the internationally recognised government.
On Sunday, a strike hit Riyadh’s international airport, killing one person, just hours after another Houthi-claimed attack on the site killed 13 people and left hundreds of others wounded, forcing authorities to suspend operations there.
The attacks on Saudi Arabia, a regional powerhouse and the world’s top oil exporter which has poured billions of dollars into its military, were the deadliest to hit the kingdom in a decade.
“For Saudi Arabia, these circumstances have tested our infrastructure, our institutions, our people, and our resilience. They have also tested decisions made long before present crises, because resilience is built before crises begin,” Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said.
“Energy security can’t be taken for granted,” he told a high-profile conference in Riyadh. “The events of recent weeks are serious, our response must be equally serious.”
– ‘The whole house shook’ –
The Houthis on Sunday claimed multiple attacks over the last 24 hours, including on the airport, and threatened to keep targeting the kingdom’s transit hubs, calling them “a theatre of operations for our forces”.
Hours later, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the group reported that a projectile struck the capital’s King Khalid International Airport, sparking a fire.
Air defences also intercepted a missile nearby, it added.
AFP journalists and locals reported hearing multiple blasts in the city on Sunday.
“The whole house shook,” said one resident of the Al-Aarid neighbourhood in the city’s north.
Authorities extended the suspension of operations at the airport, even as Saudi Arabia’s high-profile convention and entertainment season kicks off this month.
Riyadh usually hosts a packed calendar of events, including its flagship investment conference drawing foreign leaders and business titans.
The airport was not the only one in the country to be targeted: the civil aviation authority also reported another attack on Dammam airport in the east.
The Saudi-led coalition said Monday it had also “intercepted and destroyed” a Houthi ballistic missile heading for the southern city of Khamis Mushait, home to a major military base.
– ‘Full-fledged war crime’ –
Although Saudi Arabia has poured billions into its military, Houthi attacks continue to slip through.
“Saudi air defences have been able to intercept some Houthi missile and drone attacks, but Saudi Arabia is so large that it’s simply impossible for them to consistently defend themselves,” said Thomas Juneau, security analyst at Ottawa University.
The anti-Houthi coalition called Saturday’s attack a “full-fledged war crime” and vowed to “respond decisively”.
Houthi media reported two Saudi strikes in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled Sanaa governorate on Sunday.
A spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry said on X that one of the strikes killed a civilian and wounded five others.
Saturday’s attack on Riyadh drew condemnation from the United Nations and leaders around the world, including US President Donald Trump, who said he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country does not have diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, also denounced the “horrific terrorist attack”.
Iran, which backs the Houthis, said Monday it was “deeply concerned” over the escalation.
Four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese were killed, the civil aviation authority said, with 309 people wounded.
The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia also said one of its citizens died on Sunday after being wounded the day before.
– Chaos –
Witnesses to Saturday’s strike described chaos in the aftermath.
“Some had lost a hand or an arm. People were running while carrying injured people, covered in blood,” a 32-year-old Riyadh resident told AFP.
The US, Canadian, German and Spanish embassies in Saudi Arabia have warned their citizens to avoid Riyadh airport.
Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has supported Yemen’s government militarily since 2015, including by seeking to exert control over Yemeni airspace and the airport in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.
Ottawa University’s Juneau said the Houthis now “want to do to Saudi Arabia what Saudi Arabia does to them”.
On the ground in Yemen, Saudi-supported government forces were advancing in their counter-offensive against the Houthis around the Bab al-Mandab strait, a key shipping route, military sources said Saturday.
The Houthis claimed to have repelled them.
Claims by both sides have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation moving fast on the ground and access for journalists difficult.
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