Houthis claim new missile attack on Riyadh airport and strikes on two more Saudi bases

Yemen's Houthi rebels have claimed a new missile attack on King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The Iran-backed group made the claim just hours after the Saudi authorities announced on Sunday, October 25, that flights would resume, despite the airport having come under repeated attacks.

According to the King Khalid International Airport website, several international and domestic flights were scheduled on Sunday, including arrivals from Dubai, Paris and Cairo. But the tracking website FlightRadar24 said that while some flights departed, most were cancelled.

Earlier at dawn, several explosions were heard in Riyadh and residents were sent air threat alerts on their mobile phones.

On Sunday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sari said in a statement on X that the group had carried out three military operations with dozens of ballistic missiles, and that the attack targeting Riyadh airport had achieved its intended goal.

Sari also said that, in addition to Riyadh, the King Khalid air base in Khamis Mushait and the Jazan naval base in the country's south were also attacked.

Earlier this month, a Houthi attack on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport killed 13 people and injured more than 300, described as the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade.

The Saudi authorities have not commented on any new attack on the airport.

The closure of Riyadh airport has dealt a major blow to Saudi Arabia's communications and economy. Its leading investment conference has been postponed until 2027 as a result, and organisers have been forced to cancel, postpone or relocate several major events, including the prestigious Dakar Rally motorsport race.

Houthi spokesman Sari warned that Riyadh airport remains unsafe and a military target, and that no international, regional or local airline should use it, otherwise the Saudi administration would bear responsibility for any damage.

Later on Sunday, Sari said Saudi Arabia had carried out 56 attacks on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in the past 24 hours. In a post on X, he said Saudi Arabia had carried out 56 air and missile attacks with F-15 and Typhoon jets on civilian sites in the Hajjah, Lahj, Amran, Saada, Al-Jawf, Taiz and Ibb governorates, with the jets taking off from bases in Khamis Mushait and Taif and missiles fired from Najran.

Amid the tensions, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis arrived in Riyadh and met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. His office said Greece had responded positively to a Saudi request to keep the US-made Patriot air defence system, deployed at Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, in place.

Earlier, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said it had intercepted at least 10 missiles. The renewed fighting began after a long-standing truce between the Houthis and Yemen's Riyadh-backed government collapsed.

On Sunday, a resident of Khamis Mushait, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there had been very heavy bombing since the morning and that everything was shaking from the explosions.