Yemen's Houthi rebels launched missiles at Abha airport in south-western Saudi Arabia on Monday, hours after air strikes hit Sanaa's international airport – an attack they blamed on the kingdom and which they said ended a four-year informal truce.
The Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen's internationally recognised government, said its air defences “dealt with” the missiles and reported no casualties. But the Houthis – the Iran-backed group that controls north-western Yemen – vowed retaliation. Their military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, accused Saudi Arabia of “blatant aggression” and declared that the de-escalation phase of their conflict was over, warning the attack would not go “unanswered or unpunished”.
“Houthis fired missiles at Saudi Arabia after Sanaa airport strike, breaking four-year truce.”
The strike on Sanaa airport – claimed by Yemen's internationally recognised government, which is based in Aden – targeted the runway. The government said it acted to prevent an Iranian plane from landing, accusing the Houthis of blocking Yemeni national aircraft while allowing an Iranian aircraft to violate Yemeni territory. The Iranian plane had been carrying a Houthi delegation returning from the funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the Houthis. It was forced to divert and landed instead at Hodeidah airport, about 150km south-west of Sanaa.
Two US officials told Axios that Donald Trump gave Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman his support for the military action, opening a new front in the broader conflict with Iran. The airport bombing and the missile response represent the most significant escalation since an informal truce took effect in March 2022, which had largely frozen a conflict that has devastated Yemen.
The civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis ousted the government from Sanaa, and escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition intervened to restore the government's rule. More than 150,000 people have been reported killed as a result of the fighting, and the United Nations says the war has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with over 22 million people in need of aid. Separate UN estimates put the total death toll at approximately 377,000, most from starvation and infrastructure collapse.
The new escalation threatens to re-ignite a conflict that had been dormant, and the re-establishment of an airbridge between Tehran and its Houthi proxies has alarmed parts of the Middle East, including Israel, which has faced repeated Houthi ballistic missile attacks. Tehran has threatened to use the Houthis to impose a maritime blockade in the Red Sea, targeting vessels passing through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb strait.