{"id":2587,"date":"2026-10-13T01:03:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T20:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2587"},"modified":"2026-10-13T01:03:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T20:03:44","slug":"houthi-official-warns-of-swift-painful-response-if-us-enters-yemen-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2587","title":{"rendered":"Houthi official warns of ‘swift, painful response’ if US enters Yemen war"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Houthi official on Monday warned the US it would receive a \u201cpainful response\u201d if it entered the war in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has reportedly requested Washington\u2019s help in dealing with the group as it weathers repeated attacks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yemen\u2019s civil war \u2014 in which a Saudi-led military coalition supports the government against the Houthis \u2014 reignited in July, months into the wider regional conflict that has roiled energy markets and plunged the Middle East into crisis.<\/p>\n

The Houthis quickly began targeting Saudi oil facilities, tankers and transport hubs, including with a string of lethal strikes on Riyadh\u2019s airport, rocking the world\u2019s top oil exporter.<\/p>\n

Blasts resounded over the capital again on Monday night, with the Saudi coalition saying it had intercepted a Houthi missile.<\/p>\n

Following an attack Saturday at the airport that killed 13 people, US President Donald Trump said he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the group, after having reportedly rebuffed previous requests for help from the kingdom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the US becomes involved in the aggression against Yemen, we will not deliberate over the decision to respond, rather, there will be a swift and painful response targeting the US and all its interests in the region,\u201d Houthi political bureau member Mohammed Al Bukhaiti told AFP<\/em> in an interview.<\/p>\n

He also warned, \u201call employees and workers at Saudi oil facilities and airports to stay away from these sites, as they have become legitimate targets\u201d.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s strike on King Khalid International Airport was the deadliest attack on Saudi soil in more than a decade, and also left hundreds wounded.<\/p>\n

Trump said the attack was \u201cnot acceptable\u201d and that he would be speaking to the kingdom\u2019s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, telling reporters the US was \u201cgoing to look at\u201d the possibility of joining Saudi strikes.<\/p>\n

Four people died in earlier strikes on Wednesday and Thursday, and another was killed on Sunday. Operations remained suspended at the sprawling airport on Riyadh\u2019s outskirts on Monday.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u2018Serious\u2019 response<\/h3>\n

Bukhaiti said the purpose of the campaign against Saudi targets was to send a message to the crown prince \u201cthat he can no longer wage aggression against Yemen from a safe position\u201d.<\/p>\n

Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told a conference in Riyadh on Monday that the recent events had \u201ctested our infrastructure, our institutions, our people, and our resilience\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe events of recent weeks are serious; our response must be equally serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

CCTV footage of Saturday\u2019s attack released by Saudi authorities showed Muslim pilgrims in religious attire waiting in departure lounges before a sudden blast tore through the building and brought down flaming debris.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere in Riyadh remained tense on Monday, as state broadcaster Al Ekhbariya<\/em> said the military coalition was responding to drone and missile threats.<\/p>\n

In the evening, mobile phones received a loud government alert warning of a \u201chostile aerial threat\u201d before the announcement of the interception.<\/p>\n

It was the first use of the phone alert system in Riyadh in weeks, with no official reason given for the lack of messaging during the attacks targeting the capital in recent days.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Flights suspended<\/h3>\n

The US embassy in Saudi Arabia said US government employees must obtain its authorisation before using any airport in the kingdom, and urged US citizens to \u201ctake extreme caution\u201d if they chose to do so.<\/p>\n

The mission also said \u201cAmerican citizens have been detained for taking photos of recent events\u201d in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

The UAE\u2019s national carrier Etihad Airways announced on Monday that it was cancelling all flights to and from Riyadh until next week, and also suspended flights to Dammam and Jeddah.<\/p>\n

Bahrain\u2019s national carrier Gulf Air said it too was cancelling all Riyadh flights until Saturday.<\/p>\n

US operator Delta announced it would delay the launch of direct flights from Atlanta to Riyadh, scheduled for October 23.<\/p>\n

Despite vast spending on military hardware, the Houthi attacks on oil, military and transport facilities across the large, mostly desert country are stretching Saudi defences.<\/p>\n

Thomas Juneau, security analyst at Ottawa University, said that despite some success, \u201cSaudi Arabia is so large that it\u2019s simply impossible for them to consistently defend themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

Riyadh leads an international coalition that has supported Yemen\u2019s government militarily since 2015, including by seeking to exert control over Yemeni airspace and the airport in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.<\/p>\n

Juneau said the Houthis now \u201cwant to do to Saudi Arabia what Saudi Arabia does to them\u201d.<\/p>\n

The long-running Yemeni civil war has created a deeply entrenched humanitarian crisis in the impoverished country.<\/p>\n

UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was \u201cappalled by the repeated attacks\u201d on Saudi Arabia, but urged both sides to back down, adding \u201ccontinued fighting will only unleash further misery with no end in sight\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Houthi official on Monday warned the US it would receive a \u201cpainful response\u201d if it entered the war in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has reportedly requested Washington\u2019s help in dealing with the group as it weathers repeated attacks. Yemen\u2019s civil war \u2014 in which a Saudi-led military coalition supports the government against the Houthis \u2014 reignited in July, months into the wider regional conflict that has roiled energy markets and plunged the Middle East into crisis. The Houthis quickly began targeting Saudi oil facilities, tankers and transport hubs, including…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}