{"id":3297,"date":"2026-10-26T00:04:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T19:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3297"},"modified":"2026-10-26T00:04:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T19:04:59","slug":"saudi-says-riyadh-airport-partly-reopens-despite-renewed-houthi-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3297","title":{"rendered":"Saudi says Riyadh airport partly reopens despite renewed Houthi threats"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Saudi Arabia said \u200bits main airport resumed operations at two terminals on Sunday, even as Yemen\u2019s Houthis vowed \u200cto keep striking the facility, saying it remained a \u201cmilitary target\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh had halted operations on October 10 following an attack claimed by the Houthis that killed 13 people, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia intercepted another wave of missiles \u200band drones on Sunday as fighting with the militant group continued unabated.<\/p>\n

The conflict has become an increasingly destabilising \u200belement in the US-Israeli offensive against Iran, turning US ally Saudi Arabia into a pressure point \u2060in the wider war.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Flight tracking data shows little traffic<\/h3>\n

After Saudi authorities announced the partial resumption of operations at the airport, \u200bHouthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree vowed the facility would \u201cnever be safe\u201d and urged airlines, airport staff and travellers not to \u200buse it.<\/p>\n

Late on Saturday, the airport said Terminal 1 would be designated for domestic flights and Terminal 2 for international flights operated by national carriers starting Sunday.<\/p>\n

Despite the announcement, flight tracking data from Flightradar24 showed little traffic at the airport on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Saudi-led coalition said earlier this \u200bmonth that the Houthis had carried out 20 attacks on the airport between October 1 and 11.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Missile and drone attacks continue<\/h3>\n

Saudi civil defence said on Sunday that shrapnel from the interception of two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis over Khamis Mushait \u200cand Ahad \u2060Rafidah injured two people and damaged residential buildings and vehicles.<\/p>\n

Civil defence authorities earlier issued emergency alerts for Riyadh and the cities of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran on Sunday, before saying minutes later that the danger had passed.<\/p>\n

The coalition said two drones and a ballistic missile were launched towards Riyadh, and a cruise missile towards the southern city of Khamis \u200bMushait. It later said it \u200bintercepted 10 ballistic missiles fired \u2060towards southern Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

The Houthis said they attacked the airport and Saudi oil facilities on Saturday. Saudi authorities did not comment directly on the Houthi statements.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia has stepped up its \u200bstrikes against the Houthis after the group seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast \u200blast month, closing \u2060in on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait \u2013 a global maritime chokepoint and shipping route for Gulf oil producers on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula to the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The renewed fighting in Yemen has shattered a UN-brokered truce that had largely \u2060held since \u200b2022. Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen\u2019s civil war in 2015 at the \u200bhead of a coalition supporting the internationally recognised government, after the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa a year earlier.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saudi Arabia said \u200bits main airport resumed operations at two terminals on Sunday, even as Yemen\u2019s Houthis vowed \u200cto keep striking the facility, saying it remained a \u201cmilitary target\u201d. King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh had halted operations on October 10 following an attack claimed by the Houthis that killed 13 people, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade. Saudi Arabia intercepted another wave of missiles \u200band drones on Sunday as fighting with the militant group continued unabated. The conflict has become an increasingly destabilising \u200belement in…<\/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-3297","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\/3297","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=3297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}