Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
A fresh projectile strike hit a passenger terminal at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, a day after a missile attack on the same terminal killed 12 people, according to the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attacks, and Saudi authorities said there were injuries in the latest strike on the airport complex serving terminals 3 and 4 for domestic flights.
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The escalation has opened a new front in the war and raised the prospect of greater US military involvement. President Donald Trump said he was weighing joining the fight against the Houthis and planned to speak to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been seeking assistance. There was no immediate White House comment on Sunday.
Saudi authorities said Saturday’s missile attack was the deadliest in a Gulf Arab nation since the Iran war began. Another 300 people were wounded, some critically, and the airport remained closed on Sunday. India’s embassy in Saudi Arabia said one of its citizens died on Sunday from injuries suffered in Saturday’s attack, which would take the toll to 13.
Saudi authorities later said King Fahd International Airport in Dammam was also attacked, though few details were given. The latest strike in Riyadh came shortly after the Houthis said the airport in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa had been struck again and blamed Saudi Arabia.
The escalation has put oil supplies and prices, as well as commercial shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, in focus. A US intervention could prompt the Houthis to halt shipping through the waterway at the southern end of the Red Sea and further restrict the flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf. The rebels seized key areas along the strait last month, and the Saudi-led coalition has been trying to take them back.
Regional officials told The Associated Press last month that Saudi Arabia was running low on missile interceptors and had asked France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt to deploy air defence support to the region. One official said the US had also seen its own stock dwindle during the war with Iran.
Sunday’s attack came as Saudi Arabia hosted a major international energy conference in Riyadh, with other prominent events, including an investment gathering, due soon. Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been trying to present itself as a business and tourism destination, but the Houthi attacks have threatened those efforts. “There is no way that somebody will break our back. We are like a phoenix; we come out of the ashes all the time,” Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud told the conference. He added that the kingdom was working on pipelines besides the East-West line that was attacked and shut for days last month, without giving details.
Earlier on Sunday, the Houthi-run health ministry said a child was killed and six people were wounded in a suspected Saudi airstrike on a house in Sanaa. The ministry also said 91 Yemenis had been killed by the Saudi-led coalition in five weeks, 60 per cent of them women and children. There was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities on those claims.
The Houthis said on Sunday that they had attacked the airport in Dammam as well as oil and gas facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia. They have targeted Riyadh airport, which has no military facilities, every day since Wednesday. The rebels again warned “all airlines, experts, employees, workers and travelers against using Saudi airports and airspace, as they are vulnerable to attack and have become a theater of operations for our forces.” Several international airlines have suspended flights for varying periods.
Saudi authorities said those killed in Saturday’s airport attack included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, a Palestinian, a US citizen, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian and a Sudanese. The Egyptian victim was identified by state-run Egyptian television as Flynas flight attendant Azza Ramzy. A relative, Nisreen Oweida, told The Associated Press that the Syrian victim was a widowed mother living in Saudi Arabia, while the Syrian embassy identified her as Buthaina Ahmad Oweida.
Until recently, the Houthis had remained largely on the sidelines of the Iran war, but they have built up their military strength in recent years and are now among Tehran’s strongest allies. Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have been fighting since 2015, when the kingdom entered Yemen’s civil war in support of the internationally recognised government. A period of relative calm after a 2022 ceasefire ended in July when the Houthis resumed attacks, saying Saudi forces had fired on Sanaa airport as a plane from Iran was trying to land.
The latest attack revived anger over the Saudi-led blockade that has largely isolated Houthi-run areas, while the rebels say they have now imposed a blockade on Saudi Arabia. Fighting has intensified, with the Saudi-led coalition providing air support to Yemeni government forces trying to reverse recent Houthi gains near the Bab el-Mandeb, a strategic alternative to the Strait of Hormuz. Ahmed Nagi, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Yemen, said the Houthi pressure tactics could backfire: “Rather than pushing Riyadh to step back, attacks on critical Saudi infrastructure could make the Saudis more determined to continue the campaign.”
In sum, Sunday’s strike on Riyadh airport, the attack reported in Dammam, the claims from Sanaa and the mounting death toll from Saturday’s missile strike have deepened concerns over a widening conflict centred on airports, oil facilities and shipping routes in the region.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
