Three people were killed in back‑to‑back strikes on Saudi airports, officials said, amid a flare‑up of fighting near the Yemen border.
Abha International Airport, 140km south of the border, suffered an attack that left two women of Moroccan and Algerian nationalities dead and 28 people wounded, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (Gaca) reported on Wednesday.
Separate drone and ballistic‑missile strikes on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh killed a Sudanese man and injured eight others, the authority added.
The rebels known as the Houthis, who have an Iran‑backed alliance, claimed responsibility for the attacks, which analysts say signal a new escalation in the decade‑long war between Houthi forces and Saudi‑backed forces in Yemen.
These incidents came after the Houthis seized the port of Mokha on the Bab al‑Mandab strait, a key choke point for global shipping, intensifying concerns about regional security.
The Saudi‑led coalition replied that the attacks would not go unpunished, criticizing the Houthis for response to the Saudi aggression that had seen 60 airstrikes and missile attacks in the previous 24 hours.
United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres has condemned the cross‑border assaults, expressing deep concern over the sharp escalation and the mounting humanitarian toll.
Over 200,000 people have been displaced in the latest surge of fighting, according to UN figures, and the civil war in Yemen continues to be one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises.
