Yemen govt says hit Sanaa airport, Houthis attack Saudi Arabia

Yemen’s Houthis targeted Saudi Arabia on Monday, hours after the rebels accused the kingdom of attacking Sanaa airport — the biggest flare-up in years between the two sides that threatens to upend a frozen conflict.

The Saudi-backed Yemeni government claimed responsibility for the attack on the Houthi-held airport, saying it wanted to prevent an Iranian plane from landing.

It came after they failed to convince a Houthi delegation that went to Tehran for the late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s funeral to board a flight on domestic carrier Yemenia instead.

“Air defences dealt with a ballistic missile threat launched by the terrorist Houthi militia towards the southern region,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said in a social media post.

Earlier, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree accused Saudi Arabia of “ending the de-escalation phase” and warned that “this aggression will not go unanswered or unpunished”.

The latest escalation threatens to unravel a truce that has been holding since 2022 despite expiring, and comes at a time of heightened tensions as the United States and Iran trade attacks impacting the Gulf and traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

Yemen’s defence ministry accused the Houthis of “allowing an Iranian plane to violate Yemeni territory; consequently, the airport runway was targeted” in Sanaa.

Following the strikes, the head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, said he had “ordered that the scope of the confrontation not be expanded”.

Truce ‘collapse’?

Iran condemned the attack on the airport, with foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei describing it “as a clear violation of international law,” state news agency IRNA reported.

Mohammed al-Basha of the US-based risk advisory Basha Report told AFP there was a risk of the 2022 ceasefire failing.

Earlier in the day, the Yemeni government accused the rebels of preventing an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) aircraft from leaving Sanaa airport and holding the pilot and co-pilot “hostage”.

“All ICRC staff and the crew of the plane are safe and accounted for,” ICRC spokesman for the Middle East Hachem Osseiran told AFP.

The Houthis have been at war with Yemen’s government since 2014, in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

The rebels control Yemen’s capital Sanaa and much of the north, including most population centres, while the internationally recognised government holds much of the south.