Yemen's Houthis claim missile strike on Saudi Arabia's Abha airport

Yemen's Houthi group said on Tuesday it had launched a fresh ballistic missile strike on Abha International Airport in southwest Saudi Arabia's Asir region, claiming the attack disrupted air traffic.

In a statement on social media platform X, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea claimed the missile "precisely and directly" hit the airport.

There was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities regarding the attack.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation said Tuesday that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Airport in the country's southwestern region of Jazan and Najran International Airport, also in the southwest, were targeted in separate attacks on Monday evening, leaving three people slightly injured.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, Sarea said Houthi forces fired several ballistic missiles at Saudi troop concentrations at the Al-Daghareer military camp in Jazan near the Yemeni border, claiming the missiles hit their targets.

The attacks marked the latest escalation in cross-border hostilities as the Houthis continued missile and drone strikes on Saudi targets, while Riyadh intensifies airstrikes against Houthi positions to support Yemeni government forces in their ground offensive, particularly on the country's southwestern Red Sea coast, to retake lands captured by the Houthis.

Yemen's conflict erupted in late 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen. A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in 2015 to support the internationally recognized Yemeni government. The recent clashes marked the sharpest escalation since a UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted major hostilities in the war-torn country.