Houthi strikes on Riyadh airport killed three Saudis as war escalates

A Saudi-led coalition said it had destroyed three missile launch platforms used by the Houthis

Thursday's attacks on Riyadh airport killed three people, Saudi authorities said on Friday, as Yemen's Houthi group stepped up missile strikes on the kingdom and tried to shut down its airspace in an escalating war triggered by the US-Iran conflict.

The strikes, which also injured several people, damaged a Saudia Airlines plane and sent smoke billowing over the airport, led many airlines to cancel flights to the Saudi capital days before it is due to host a major meeting of global oil chiefs.

#Statement Two attacks targeted King Khalid International Airport facilities and a Saudia aircraft.#GACA pic.twitter.com/6YnBN717Cw

— هيئة الطيران المدني (@ksagaca) October 9, 2026

Saudi airstrikes hit Houthi targets in the Yemeni capital Sanaa overnight, Houthi officials and affiliated media said, part of an intensifying air war against the Iran-allied group aimed at reversing its recent territorial gains, threats to international shipping, and attacks on the kingdom.

A Saudi-led coalition backing government forces in Yemen said it had destroyed three missile launch platforms used by the Houthis. It warned it would respond firmly to attacks on civilians.

Read: PIA temporarily suspends flight operations to Riyadh, cites Middle East conflict

The Houthis, who have encircled Yemeni government forces in Yemen's third-largest city of Taiz and are trying to defend positions on the Red Sea coast against a Saudi-backed offensive, had already killed three people with strikes on airports in the kingdom earlier this week.

The Saudi civil aviation authority said air traffic at Riyadh airport had returned to normal, and flight-tracking site flightradar24 showed a gradual resumption of flights, including from some Middle Eastern airlines.

Saudia Airlines said one of those killed on Thursday was one of its employees.

Bitter fighting inside Yemen

Yemen's civil war has rapidly emerged as the fiercest front in a wider regional conflagration triggered by the US and Israeli attack on Iran that started on February 28.

The conflict is critical for global energy markets, with the Houthis firing on shipping in the Red Sea and its southern gateway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, further squeezing Gulf oil supplies with Iran partly blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

Last month the Houthis staged a lightning advance down Yemen's Red Sea coast to take full control over the coastline around the strait, prompting Saudi Arabia to re-enter the long-dormant conflict and back a government counteroffensive.

Read more: Information ministry rubbishes 'fake and fabricated' NYT report claiming use of PAF aircraft against Houthis

On Monday, government forces took back territory around the Bab el-Mandeb coastline after intense Saudi airstrikes and fighting continued there.

However, Houthi forces have also managed to cut off a key road connecting Taiz, a city of more than half a million people with a garrison of thousands of pro-government fighters, with advances in mountain districts.

The group has announced repeated rounds of ballistic missile fire at Saudi Arabia, proclaiming it would shut down Saudi airspace and warning workers at oil facilities that it would strike those too.

Saudi Arabia is seeking assistance from Pakistan and Turkey, its partners in a mutual defence pact, to help ward off Houthi attacks, and has pushed for wider help from allies to aid it in reversing the group's gains inside Yemen.

Saudi-led coalition in Yemen says it destroyed 3 Houthi missile launch platforms

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said on Friday that it destroyed three missile launch platforms "used by the Houthi group to threaten regional security."

"Houthi attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure will be met with a firm response," coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki wrote on X.

Colonel Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised gov't, says his forces have destroyed three rocket-launch platforms used by the Houthis “to threaten regional security.”

🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/gZ4fFP1inU pic.twitter.com/TVs76QeaTv

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 9, 2026

Yemen has been engulfed in conflict since the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and several provinces in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government.

After a period of relative calm following the 2022 truce, the fighting resumed in July and spilt over into neighbouring Saudi Arabia, with the Houthis launching missile and drone attacks on Saudi territory. This week, government forces announced the launch of the Dawn of Yemen operation to retake all territory held by the group.

Saudi-led coalition in Yemen says it destroyed 3 Houthi missile launch platforms

Yemen's Houthi group on Friday said a Saudi aircraft carried out airstrikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa, and the flashpoint provinces of Taiz and Hajjah.

The Houthi-run Saba news agency said the aircraft targeted Houthi-controlled Sanaa.

In a separate report, the agency quoted an unnamed local source as saying that the aircraft also targeted Haradh district in the western Hajjah province with two airstrikes.

Another series of airstrikes targeted the areas of Al-Zukaira, Al-Masahin and Al-Zaazea in Al-Shamayatayn district of Taiz province, it added.

The attacks were carried out on Thursday and Friday.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi officials or Yemen’s internationally recognised government on the reports.