Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis, continued attacks against the King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, a day after one of its strikes on the facility killed 12 civilians.
The Saudi aviation authority said that the 12 dead included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian, and one Sudanese, and that another 309 people were injured in the attack.
Ansar Allah military spokesman Yahya Saree announced a series of attacks on Saudi airports, including the strike on King Khalid Airport. He didn’t address the civilian casualties, but renewed a warning against using Saudi airports and said Riyadh was to blame for any failed interceptions.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces reiterate their warning to all airlines, experts, employees, workers, and travelers against using Saudi airports and airspace, as they are vulnerable to targeting and constitute a theater of operations for our forces, with the exception of Mecca and Medina airports,” Saree wrote on Telegram.
“They urge everyone to take our warnings seriously, and Saudi Arabia bears responsibility for any failed attempts to intercept them,” Saree added.
Ansar Allah escalated strikes on Saudi airports after issuing a warning on October 5 that Saudi airspace would no longer be safe for civilian aircraft. The group is framing the policy as an “airport for an airport” since Saudi Arabia has repeatedly bombed Yemeni airports, including the July 13 strikes on the Sanaa International Airport, which reignited the war after a ceasefire between the two sides had held relatively well since 2022.
“The Armed Forces affirm their commitment to implementing the declared equation: an airport for an airport, a blockade for a blockade, and escalation for escalation, until their objectives are achieved,” Saree said in his statement on Sunday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday “strongly condemned” the Ansar Allah attack that killed 12 civilians and confirmed an American citizen was among those killed. The attack came as President Trump said he was considering launching direct airstrikes in Yemen, which would mark another major escalation of the war.
A US-Ansar Allah ceasefire reached in May 2025 remains in effect, and an Ansar Allah official has warned that if the US breaks the truce, it would lead to attacks on US assets and the closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to US shipping.
While the US isn’t launching direct strikes, it remains deeply involved in the war as it provides targeting and intelligence support and has resumed refueling Saudi warplanes. The Saudi air campaign has had a devastating impact on Yemeni civilians, with at least 66 killed by US-backed Saudi airstrikes in September.
Saudi airstrikes continued to pound Yemen over the weekend, with Saree saying on Sunday that Saudi Arabia “launched 124 airstrikes in the past 24 hours, targeting the capital Sanaa and the governorates of Taiz, Marib, al-Jawf, Hajjah, Hodeidah, and Saada, bringing the total number of airstrikes since the beginning of the escalation against our country up to 2,058, committing massacres against our people, the majority of whose victims are women and children.”
