Yemen's Houthis claim attack on Riyadh airport, deny losing territory

Yemen's Houthis claimed an attack on the Saudi capital's main airport and on Tuesday denied being pushed back by government forces, who have launched a major operation to recapture lost territory.

The Houthi statements come as Yemen's military said it had removed the pro-Iran group from areas around the Bab al-Mandab strait, a Red Sea chokepoint, and the port city of Mocha.

Claims by both sides in Yemen have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation on the ground moving fast and access for journalists difficult.

After a four-year ceasefire, Yemen's long-running conflict has reignited during the wider Middle East war, which has roiled world energy markets and snarled trade routes.

Sources on both sides told AFP on Tuesday that fighting across the country had killed more than 270 government troops and Houthi fighters over the past day.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group still held all territory seized last month when they swept through coastal areas along the Red Sea, a vital global shipping route.

Houthi fighters "have full control over all their advances on the ground", he posted on Telegram.

Saree said they had carried out dozens of strikes in the past few hours targeting government forces in Yemen's Al-Jawf and Marib regions, while also attacking Taiz governorate.

The Houthis' health ministry meanwhile said on Tuesday that a Saudi airstrike killed six members of the same family, including four children, in a village in Hajjah governorate, bordering Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, the Houthis said they had struck Riyadh airport and a refinery belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco.

Loud explosions rattled the Saudi capital on Monday evening. They were followed by another explosion on Tuesday that echoed through northern parts of the city, residents told AFP.

Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport is facing frequent temporary closures of its airspace, according to tracking website Flightradar24.

Saudi authorities have not publicly acknowledged the closures or confirmed any strikes targeting the facility.

But on Tuesday the civil aviation authority said at least three people were wounded in attacks on Jazan and Najran airports near the Yemen border a day earlier.  

Saudi Arabia, the main backer of the Yemeni government, has been providing air support for the counter-offensive launched by government forces.

 

- 'Mocha is a war zone' -

 

Government forces claimed late on Monday that they had achieved "victories on several fronts". But military sources with the government refrained from confirming Mocha's recapture, only saying they had cut the one supply route to the area.

They also said they expelled the Houthis from several areas in Taiz in the southwest, where fighting has surged in recent days.

Mohammed, a 33-year-old charity worker who fled from Mocha to Aden, said "people there are terrified".

"Life in Mocha has come to a complete standstill -- there is no movement at all. The city has become a war zone," he told AFP.

Yemen's government has announced a goal of retaking all Houthi territory -- home to most of the country's population, and much of it held for more than a decade.

Yemen's civil war flared up again in July after years of relative calm, opening a new front in the wider Middle East war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February.

The Houthis last month seized control of Yemen's entire western coastline along the Red Sea in the country's deadliest fighting in years.

They have regularly targeted oil and military installations in Saudi Arabia and declared a maritime blockade on its ships.

Pakistan and Turkey on Monday pledged to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defence pact following weeks of Houthi attacks.

Hamish Kinnear, an analyst with UK-based Verisk Maplecroft, said the deployment "is likely to mean Turkey and Pakistan helping to intercept Houthi missiles and drones fired at Saudi Arabia". 

He added that Turkey and Pakistan "will emphasise that their deployment is to support the Saudis and counter the Houthis, not to antagonise Iran and support the US". 

But he said "that distinction will become harder to maintain if the regional conflict continues to escalate". 

The Yemen conflict caused a major humanitarian crisis that left most of the population dependent on aid.

The Houthis' campaign around the Red Sea coast forced more than 184,000 people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply concerned by the sharp escalation in fighting". He condemned Houthi cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia.

burs-amj/dcp