View of the financial center of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Credit: AFP archive photo)
Loud explosions rang out early Saturday in Riyadh, AFP journalists reported, following an airstrike alert issued by authorities, the first such warning in the Saudi capital since fighting intensified in Yemen.
The kingdom has faced mounting attacks in recent days from the Houthis, Iran-backed fighters who control much of Yemen and have scored a dramatic breakthrough against the internationally recognized government, which is backed by a coalition led by Riyadh. The airstrike alert was the first activated in the capital since the conflict escalated, further rattling a global economy already shaken by nearly seven months of war in the Middle East.
’’The area is facing a hostile aerial threat,’’ warned a message received by Riyadh residents on their phones shortly before 3 a.m. local time, urging them to stay indoors. AFP journalists later heard two explosions. Saudi Civil Defense lifted the alert about half an hour later.
The kingdom has not yet responded to the explosions or provided details about the origin of the threat mentioned in the overnight warnings issued to residents in several regions. Still, it has faced increasingly intense Houthi attacks in recent days.
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia accused the Houthis of targeting Mecca, denouncing what it called a ‘‘cowardly’’ attack on the holy city of Islam, which welcomes millions of pilgrims each year. The announcement provoked a strong reaction across the Arab and Muslim world.
The Houthis have firmly denied the allegation, saying they only target oil facilities or military bases ‘‘far from sacred sites,’’ in response to Saudi support for the Yemeni government recognized by the international community.
The Houthis report dozens of retaliatory strikes by Riyadh daily since their lightning offensive in early September. They now control the entire Yemeni coastline on the Red Sea, further tightening their grip on the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects Europe to Asia via the Suez Canal.
Saudi exports reduced
The war in Yemen began in 2014, when the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and other regions, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention in March 2015. The fragile truce between the warring parties, reached in 2022, collapsed in July when the Iran-backed fighters challenged Riyadh’s control of Yemeni airspace by allowing an Iranian plane to land in Yemen.
Their recent takeover of the coast has sparked international concern, as global maritime transport is already heavily disrupted by Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, since the start of the Middle East war.
The Houthis, for their part, say there is no threat to shipping in the Bab al-Mandeb sea lane, except for Saudi ships, as Saudi Arabia is the world’s top crude exporter. According to maritime tracking company Kpler, only five vessels carrying Saudi cargo have left the Red Sea via Bab al-Mandeb over the past seven days, less than a third of the usual weekly traffic recorded since January.
Hit on its own soil and threatened at sea, by the Houthis in the Red Sea on one side and by Iran in the Gulf on the other, Saudi Arabia is under pressure, with major consequences for the global economy.
The United States, which last week declined, according to Axios, to strike the Houthis at Saudi Arabia’s request, on Thursday approved the sale of 48 F-35 fighter jets to the kingdom. The $24.3 billion sale will allow Riyadh to ‘‘deter current and future threats,’’ the U.S. State Department said, although delivery will not take place for some time.
At least 112,000 people have been displaced within Yemen and nearly 3,000 others have taken refuge in Djibouti since fighting resumed in early September in the country, the poorest in the Arabian Peninsula, according to the latest U.N. figures.
