Smoke Near Riyadh Airport After Rare Air-Raid Alerts as Houthi Conflict Escalates
RIYADH — A thick column of black smoke rose near Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday, hours after Saudi authorities issued rare air-raid alerts across the capital and told residents to stay indoors.
The alerts marked the first time residents had received such a warning since a recent escalation in Saudi Arabia’s conflict with Iran-backed Houthi militants in neighboring Yemen. By Saturday morning, the Civil Defence had issued an all-clear, but not before the incident triggered hours of disruption at King Khalid International Airport.
Flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 reported delays and cancellations earlier in the day. Several apparent explosions were heard across the capital, and residents described a night of fear and confusion.
One report suggested a fuel tank had been set on fire near the airport. Saudi authorities have not issued an official comment. An AFP journalist said firefighters were visible trying to extinguish flames from a burnt-out fuel tank belonging to Aramco, the state oil and gas company.
Residents caught off guard
The Saudi Civil Defence sent phone alerts overnight warning of potential danger in Riyadh and other regions. Residents told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity, that they heard what sounded like a round of explosions echoing through the city after the alerts.
“I heard the alarm, then my windows shook,” said a 27-year-old resident of northern Riyadh. “It was definitely scary. I was not expecting this.”
The disruption at King Khalid International Airport, one of the kingdom’s main aviation hubs, added to the sense of alarm. Even temporary closures or delays at such a facility can ripple across regional and international routes, affecting connecting passengers and cargo operations.
Houthi conflict escalates
The alerts came after a week of rising tensions with the Houthis, who have been fighting Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia.
On Friday, the Houthis said they had thwarted Saudi attacks on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, which they said bore the hallmarks of an Islamic State operation. Houthi military spokesman Yahya al-Sarea said Saudi Arabia had carried out 300 strikes across Yemen over the past week and warned that the reported attacks on Sanaa would “not go unanswered.”
The Houthis have attacked targets inside Saudi Arabia on several occasions in recent months. This week, they said they were responsible for downing a Saudi fighter jet over Yemen. Verified video later showed the wreckage of the downed aircraft, according to related coverage.
An unconfirmed AFP report, citing military sources on both sides of Yemen’s civil war, said fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces killed 48 people on Saturday. The Houthis said 31 of their fighters were killed, while government sources said 17 soldiers had died, the agency reported.
On Friday, the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations body, said the number of people displaced by recent fighting had passed 104,796.
Shipping and oil risks
The conflict has also moved closer to some of the region’s most important economic arteries. The Houthis recently seized control of the strategic port city of Mokha and Perim Island, a gateway to a key shipping route used by Gulf states to export oil and goods to Asia and Europe.
The group said its naval blockade was in retaliation for a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in Houthi-controlled northwestern Yemen. Saudi vessels have relied on that stretch of the Red Sea for oil exports since the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz.
On Friday, investment banking giant JP Morgan said it was struggling to predict how oil prices would be affected by the war, telling investors in a rare note: “We simply don’t know how to model the endgame.” Related coverage framed the bank’s dilemma as a consequence of Trump’s war with Iran.
The uncertainty reflects how a conflict once largely contained to Yemen’s battlefields is now touching aviation, shipping, energy markets and daily life in the Saudi capital. For Riyadh, the smoke near its airport is both a security scare and a reminder that the war’s economic and strategic costs are increasingly difficult to isolate.
Other related developments underscored the widening risks: Saudi Arabia said it shot down a Houthi drone south of Mecca; satellite imagery revealed major damage that shut a crucial Saudi oil pipeline; and analysts warned that a lightning Houthi advance in Yemen could bring a dangerous new dimension to the broader Iran conflict.