On October 3, 2026, flames broke out at a facility belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco south of Riyadh. (Photo courtesy of AFP, Getty Images) /
– | AFP | Getty Images
Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis have stepped up a deadly offensive campaign on Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, with explosions heard Thursday, flights disrupted and some office staff ordered to work from home.
The Houthis said they repeatedly threatened to fire ballistic missiles at Riyadh airport and force a closure of Saudi airspace after Saudi Arabia backed Yemen’s internationally recognized government forces in a flare-up of civil war.
The conflict, which spills over from the current war between the United States and Iran, threatens to wreak fresh chaos in an already simmering region and draw other countries into the brutal mountain fighting, with Syria now considering sending troops to support Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has turned to its allies, including Turkey and Pakistan, for help, even if only with logistics and defense capabilities, as it seeks to reverse the Houthi dominance in southwestern Yemen, near the southern entrance to the Red Sea.
Those calls have taken on added urgency since Saudi authorities said on Wednesday that three people were killed in attacks this week at Riyadh and Abha airports in the southwest.
Civil war reignites in Iran conflict
Aviation tracker FlightRadar24 showed on Thursday that there were numerous arrival and departure delays at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.
Several rebel companies based in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) told their employees to work from home after the blast on Thursday morning, five people involved, including the affected employees, said.
The Saudi government did not respond to requests for comment, and KAFD did not respond to requests for comment.
Some diplomats said they had received warnings, and some schools in Riyadh told parents they were being told to shelter in place, but authorities did not issue a public alert. Reuters could not determine the cause of the boom.
Yemen’s long-running civil war, briefly halted by a 2022 ceasefire, has flared up again in recent weeks, with the Houthis seizing areas along the Red Sea coast last month, including along the crucial Bab el-Mandeb strait.
The Houthis, who control much of Yemen’s most populous region, including the capital Sanaa, said they were responding to attacks from the Saudi-backed government, a charge the government denies.
Since Iran’s attack on the Strait of Hormuz, the Saudis have been drawn in again by their threats against shipping in the waterway, which has become increasingly important for Gulf oil exports, and by attacks on Saudi cities and infrastructure.
This week, Saudi-backed forces launched a counterattack and recaptured areas around the strait.
But in a war on multiple fronts, the Houthis have made gains of their own, encircling Yemen’s third-largest city, Taiz, by seizing territory along the main mountain route to Aden.
The fighting, between the Houthis and a Saudi-backed coalition under the internationally recognized government, has created a humanitarian crisis in the poorest Arab country, with 200,000 people displaced since the conflict resumed.
Officials say aid to Syria may be purely defensive
A U.S. and Syrian defense official said Syria was carefully considering options for military assistance, including defense assistance to protect Saudi Arabia from attack and offensive deployments to help fight the Houthis.
A diplomat, responding to a request for comment from Syria’s Foreign Ministry, said Syria would firmly cooperate with Saudi Arabia, but that Syria was focused on domestic priorities, such as rebuilding from the civil war.
Saudi Arabia signed the Mecca Accord with Turkey and Pakistan this summer, pledging the three countries to defend each other, but Ankara has not yet ratified the treaty.
NATO member Turkey announced on Wednesday that it was sending mainly defensive technical assistance to the kingdom to help fight the Houthis.
Turkish officials said this is expected to take the form of military equipment, intelligence sharing and weapons systems.
Turkey is a close ally of the Syrian government, supporting the Syrian army since it was still a rebel group fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s government, and previously involving some Syrians in the fighting in Libya’s 2020 civil war.
Pakistan is airlifting military equipment to Aden in southern Yemen to help fight the Houthis and sending troops into Saudi Arabia to help defend the border, according to Pakistani officials.
Saudi and Yemeni authorities did not respond to requests for comment.
