Riyadh woke before dawn to the sound of blasts and emergency alerts as Yemen’s Houthi movement and a Saudi-led coalition traded claims over what would be the most serious threat to the Saudi capital since the civil war reignited.
The Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis said the group fired a ballistic missile toward Riyadh at daybreak, but that Saudi air defences intercepted and destroyed it, after residents reported explosions in the capital.
“The Houthis also attempted to target civilians and civilian infrastructure in Bisha, Taif, Farasan, and Yanbu,” a coalition spokesperson wrote on X, saying the strikes “were thwarted by the Gulf monarchy’s air defences”.
Near Riyadh’s international airport, black smoke and flames rose as the Houthis announced they had carried out attacks on targets in the capital and on coastal oil facilities.
An AFP journalist saw firefighters put out a blaze on a fuel tank bearing the logo of Saudi oil giant Aramco at a fuel depot close to the airport.
Video circulated online showed a thick column of black smoke looming over airport buildings.
The flare-up comes as the Houthi movement has in recent weeks launched a lightning offensive, capturing large stretches of territory in one of the world’s poorest countries and leaving the internationally-recognised government — backed by Saudi Arabia — scrambling to respond.
Saudi Arabia has answered with scores of airstrikes on Houthi-held areas, but has not halted the advance.
“In response to the Saudi enemy’s criminal 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 Telegram statement.
“The first targeted sensitive sites in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the second targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu.”
Saudi authorities did not immediately comment, after having issued an overnight air raid alert.
Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 reported “major problems” at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, briefly placing it at the top of its disruption index before flights began returning to normal.
Lightning offensive
The episode marks the first time since Yemen’s civil war resumed that strikes have threatened Riyadh, adding pressure to a global economy already shaken by seven months of war between the US and Iran.
“The area is under a hostile aerial threat,” read a message received by Riyadh residents shortly before 3am, urging people to remain indoors.
Journalists later heard two explosions, and the Saudi civil defence agency lifted the alert around half an hour later.
“I heard the alarm, then my windows shook,” a 27-year-old resident in northern Riyadh told AFP.
“It was definitely scary. I was not expecting this.”
‘Terrifying’
Another resident called the attack “terrifying”.
The incident follows Riyadh’s accusation that the Houthis targeted Mecca on Wednesday, condemning it as a “cowardly terrorist attack” on Islam’s holiest city, which draws millions of pilgrims every year.
The Houthis strongly denied the claim, calling it a “worn-out lie”.
The group says Riyadh has carried out scores of retaliatory strikes each day since their offensive this month to seize Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast, a campaign that would give them control over the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait.
The United Nations said the renewed fighting had displaced more than 112,000 people
Riyadh previously faced waves of attacks earlier in the conflict, including a drone strike on the US embassy in the capital’s diplomatic quarter in March.
The United States, US news platform Axios reported, refused a Saudi request last week to strike the Houthis.
On Thursday, Washington approved a $24.3 billion (€21.17 billion) sale of 48 F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to help the kingdom “deter current and future threats,” the US State Department said.
‘Escalation trap’
“My read is that Saudi Arabia is entering into a phase of escalation with the Houthis and will respond, but they know the only way this ends is through negotiations,” said Anna Jacobs of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
“But both sides have a say in when that can happen and both sides seem locked in the escalation trap at this stage.”
The United Nations said the renewed fighting had displaced more than 112,000 people, and that nearly 3,000 others had fled by sea to Djibouti.
Yemen’s war erupted in 2014 when the Houthis took control of the capital Sanaa and other areas, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention in March 2015.
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A fragile truce reached in 2022 collapsed in July after the Houthis defied Riyadh’s control of Yemeni airspace by allowing an Iranian aircraft to land in Yemen.
The group’s recent coastal gains have fuelled international alarm, with global maritime trade already affected by Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Houthis maintain that shipping in the sea lane faces no threat — except vessels from Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading crude exporter.
The reported strike came as the Houthis bolstered defences across newly captured areas on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Group members told journalists they had been installing radar systems and digging tunnels.
Two Houthi sources told AFP that personnel from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had visited the area in recent days.
