Days before oil ministers and industry chiefs are expected in Riyadh for the WPC Energy Congress, much of the region’s air traffic is avoiding the Saudi capital. Europe’s aviation regulator EASA widened its no-fly recommendation, the risk monitor OPSGROUP told operators to stay out of the kingdom’s skies entirely, and Italy’s energy minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin opted to join the congress by video.
What set this off were Thursday’s Houthi missiles that struck Riyadh’s main airport, King Khalid International. Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority GACA reported on Friday that three Saudi citizens died, among them Saudia captain Hamoud Ali Alkalthami, while people of several nationalities were hurt. A Saudia jet was damaged. Flights have gradually resumed, although cancellations remained widespread.
Riyadh was not the first target this week. Earlier strikes on Abha, Jazan and Najran had already left three civilians dead and dozens injured, according to GACA. The Yemeni group now treats any plane over Saudi territory as a legitimate target, sparing only Mecca and Medina. Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Sanaa described the logic as “airport-for-airport” retaliation for Saudi raids on Yemeni airfields.
Behind the escalation lies a wider war. Fighting in Yemen, dormant for years, flared again once American and Israeli forces went to war with Iran at the end of February. Last month the Houthis seized the coast along the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which pulled Saudi Arabia back in to support a government counteroffensive. Government troops have since claimed gains there, while the Houthis tightened their grip around the city of Taiz.
Riyadh answered with overnight air raids on Sanaa, and the coalition said it destroyed three launch platforms. Pakistan confirmed that a “substantial number of forces” is now stationed in the Saudi capital under a defence pact that also includes Turkey, and Saudi Arabia has asked the UN Security Council to act. The US embassy in Abu Dhabi told Americans to stay alert.
