Houthi Strikes on Two Saudi Airports Wound Three as Yemen War Escalates

Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority confirmed on Tuesday that three people sustained injuries after projectiles struck two airports in the kingdom's southwest, an attack the Houthi movement in neighbouring Yemen claimed responsibility for. According to the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz airport in Jazan and Najran airport were both hit on Monday evening, resulting in what officials described as three minor injuries alongside material damage to the facilities.

The authority said in its statement that the wounded had been taken to hospital, though it did not specify how severe their conditions were, noting only that the injuries varied in severity. Specialised response teams were dispatched immediately after the strikes, the statement added, and the authority said it would keep assessing the extent of the damage while putting in place measures to safeguard passengers and airport personnel.

The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, said late on Monday that their forces had launched attacks against multiple targets across southern Saudi Arabia, listing airports and military installations among the sites they struck. The group has controlled Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since 2014 and has carried out numerous cross-border attacks against Saudi territory throughout the conflict.

Reaction from regional capitals was swift. Jassim al-Budaiwi, the secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, characterised the strikes on airports and civilian infrastructure as a dangerous escalation and pressed the international community to adopt a firm and unified stance against such attacks. Kuwait's Ministry of Foreign Affairs similarly condemned what it called the Iran-aligned group's continued brazen and disgraceful attacks on Saudi Arabia, accusing the Houthis of deliberately targeting civilians and economic facilities.

The airport strikes unfolded against a backdrop of intensifying combat inside Yemen, where forces loyal to the internationally recognised government, supported by a Saudi-led coalition, are pressing a counteroffensive against Houthi positions. The coalition announced early on Tuesday that it had destroyed a ballistic missile launch platform in Sanaa, along with a storage site in Saada province that it said contained 20 ballistic missiles. Those announcements were carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The renewed fighting follows a counteroffensive launched by Yemeni government-aligned forces aimed at recovering territory the Houthis seized last month. Those forces claim they have retaken the Red Sea port city of Mocha and now control the strategically vital Bab al-Mandeb strait, a chokepoint through which a significant share of global maritime trade passes.

The Saudi-led coalition has acknowledged its role in the government offensive, stating that 100 of its fighter jets are providing air support. Saudi naval forces have also begun an operation targeting the Houthis in Hodeidah governorate, according to coalition statements. The scale of the air and naval involvement signals a substantial escalation in the coalition's direct participation in ground-level objectives.

Fernando Carvajal, a former United Nations Security Council adviser on Yemen, told Al Jazeera that Mocha would prove pivotal to the next stage of the clashes. He cautioned that government forces must first demonstrate they can hold the city, which he noted is surrounded by Houthi fighters on three sides, before they can realistically use it as a staging ground for further advances. His assessment suggests that territorial gains announced by the government side remain fragile and could be reversed if the Houthis mount a sustained counterattack.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan agreed to activate deterrence measures under a mutual defence pact and to deploy forces rapidly to the Gulf kingdom to counter Houthi attacks. Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman announced the decision in a social media post, saying the committee had agreed to activate collective deterrence measures within the framework of the alliance in response to the attacks and all those responsible for them.

The Saudi defence minister added that the alliance had reaffirmed the solidarity and unity of the participating countries in confronting what he described as heinous attacks against the kingdom and holy sites. The language reflects Saudi Arabia's framing of the Houthi campaign as not merely a military confrontation but an assault on sites of religious significance, a characterisation likely intended to galvanise broader support among Muslim-majority nations.

Carvajal, however, expressed uncertainty about what practical support the new deployments would entail. He suggested Pakistan might attempt to mediate between the warring parties, but noted that the Houthis would probably be willing to negotiate only with the Saudis directly, a dynamic that would leave Yemen's internationally recognised government sidelined from any prospective talks. That prospect highlights a persistent tension in the conflict: the government in Yemen depends on Saudi military backing, yet may find itself excluded from diplomatic processes that could determine the country's future.

The strikes on Jazan and Najran airports represent a continuation of the Houthis' long-running strategy of targeting Saudi infrastructure in retaliation for coalition air operations inside Yemen. Both airports sit close to the Yemeni border, making them vulnerable to projectiles launched from Houthi-controlled territory, and civilian aviation hubs have been struck repeatedly over the course of the war.

The combined developments — the airport attacks, the coalition's missile-destruction claims, the government counteroffensive near Bab al-Mandeb, and the activation of a three-nation defence arrangement — point to a conflict entering a more dangerous phase. With foreign forces preparing to deploy to Saudi Arabia and fighting raging around one of the world's most important maritime corridors, the prospects for de-escalation appear distant, and the civilian toll on both sides of the border continues to mount.