Smoke seen near Riyadh airport as Riyadh issues first air raid alert amid renewed Yemen fighting Despite earlier all clear, explosions heard in city, flight disruptions reported Iran-backed Houthis accuse Saudis of launching dozens of strikes at their positions in Yemen.
SANAA/ RIYADH – Yemen’s Houthis claimed Saturday that they launched strikes targeting “sensitive sites” in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and oil facilities in the kingdom’s port city of Yanbu, hours after residents reported blasts in the Saudi capital.
“In response to the Saudi enemy’s attempts to target the capital Sanaa… the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two successful military operations using a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said, in a statement on Telegram.
“The first (strike) targeted sensitive sites in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the second targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu.”
A large plume of smoke was visible near Riyadh’s main airport on Saturday after booms were heard and Saudi Arabia sent alerts overnight warning of potential danger around the capital, amid an escalation in attacks by Yemen’s Houthi group.
Reuters video and photographs showed a huge pillar of black smoke rising in the area, with the airport highway, main terminal building and other facilities in the foreground.
There was no immediate comment from the Saudi government’s media office in response to Reuters questions about the smoke and the overnight alerts.
Aircraft tracking website FlightRadar24 reported major issues at the Saudi capital’s Riyadh King Khalid International Airport, including cancellations and delays.
The airport was listed under the site’s maximum disruption index of 5.0, meaning the airport was seeing “major problems with long delays and several cancelled flights.”
The disruption follows an overnight air raid alert issued by Saudi authorities, the first since fighting in neighbouring Yemen intensified this month.
Hours after the early morning alert, residents told AFP on condition of anonymity that they heard what sounded like another round of explosions echoing through parts of the Saudi capital.
Explosions were heard in Riyadh early Saturday, AFP journalists reported, after Saudi authorities issued their first air raid alert in the capital since fighting returned to neighboring Yemen.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been fighting with Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces since the country’s civil war reignited in July, when the group also declared a maritime blockade on Riyadh and began targeting its ships in the Red Sea.
This is the first time the conflict has reached the Saudi capital, further shaking a global economy already rattled by nearly seven months of war between the United States and Iran.
“The area is under a hostile aerial threat,” a message received shortly before 3 a.m. by residents of the Saudi capital warned, urging them to stay indoors.
AFP journalists then heard two explosions before the alert was lifted about half an hour later by Saudi Arabia’s civil defense agency.
Saudi Arabia is yet to comment on the threat mentioned in the warnings sent overnight to residents of several regions and has not identified where it originated from.
It comes after Riyadh accused the group of targeting Mecca on Wednesday, denouncing it as a “cowardly terrorist attack” on Islam’s holy city, which welcomes millions of pilgrims each year, both Sunnis and Shias.
