Four days of Houthi strikes on Saudi airports kill three and ground hundreds of flights

Four days of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia’s airports have killed three people, grounded hundreds of flights, and called into question the airspace the region reroutes through — with the World Petroleum Congress opening Sunday and FII under three weeks out. Turkey has ruled out joining any offensive, Syria is "considering," the US is sitting out the ground war, and Trump has just told Iran he won't attack before November.

The Houthis claimed a ballistic missile strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport yesterday, a day after an attack on the same airport killed one, Reuters reports. The coalition said it intercepted two missiles over the capital, debris damaging a kindergarten and a clinic. A Sudanese man was killed and eight injured at King Khalid on Wednesday, while two women were killed and 28 injured at Abha on Tuesday. The Houthis also claimed Najran airport and told Saudi oil-sector staff to avoid facilities the group considers targets, and AFP witnesses saw a Saudia jet at the airport’s Terminal 4 with cracks and holes in its fuselage.

Airlines listened to the militant group’s “last warning” against using Saudi airspace, with the exception of Makkah and Madinah. Some 300 arrivals and departures at King Khalid were scrubbed yesterday, Bloomberg reports. That’s roughly 45% of departures, with Saudia and flynas worst hit and scores more canceled at Jeddah and Dammam. Lufthansa is out to 16 October, KLM and Air France to 24 October, Cathay Pacific to 31 January. The airport was broadly back to normal Friday morning.

The attacks are retaliation for a ground war going badly for the Houthis. Yemeni government forces, backed by Saudi air power, launched Operation Yemen Dawn on Sunday and claim to have retaken Mokha, Dhubab and the heights over Bab Al Mandab — ground the Houthis seized in a lightning offensive last month.

Any joiners?

Riyadh’s allies are hedging: Turkey will not send troops into another country to launch an attack there, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said, distinguishing defense of an ally from offensive operations against the Houthis, Bloomberg reports. Fidan’s statement comes although a Turkish air-defense kit is already in the Kingdom and a limited special-forces deployment awaits parliamentary approval this month under the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement. Damascus, meanwhile, is weighing anything from defensive support to troops alongside Saudi-backed Yemeni forces, Reuters and Axios report, after President Ahmed Al Sharaa raised it with MbS on Tuesday. A US official says Riyadh asked for a deployment, which the Syrian president’s adviser denies.

The reticence from allies to join the war comes as the other front isn’t going all too well, as Iran’s tanker campaign moves outside of Hormuz. UKMTO logged nine attacks on vessels near Hormuz in October’s first week, against 13 across September. Projectiles hit the Antigua-flagged tanker Acers some 51 nautical miles off Qatar on Wednesday evening, with casualties reported — the first strike in that area in over six months — and a fire broke out on a tanker off Fujairah on Thursday. Neither Iran nor the IRGC claimed either. Iran’s military suggested ships on “unauthorized” routes may have struck sea mines.

Washington, meanwhile, isn’t going to be engaging in further strikes until after the midterm elections, US President Donald Trump said yesterday, citing “productive discussions.” The Atlantic had reported he was weighing pre-election strikes and the New York Times that officials had discussed a three-day campaign. In the meantime, the US’ naval blockade on Iran stays in full force.