UAE condemns Houthi attacks on Abha and King Khalid airports
Yemen Herald News 
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates condemned Houthi attacks on two Saudi airports that killed three people, saying the strikes violated Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty.
The Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday that it condemned the attacks on Abha International Airport and King Khalid International Airport in the strongest terms.
It called them a flagrant violation of Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty and a threat to the kingdom’s security and stability.
The ministry said the three people killed were a Moroccan, an Algerian and a Sudanese national. It said dozens of civilians were wounded.
The ministry offered condolences to the families of the victims and wished the wounded a swift recovery.
It reaffirmed what it called the full solidarity of the UAE with Saudi Arabia, and its support for all measures aimed at safeguarding the kingdom’s security and stability.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation gave its own account of the same attacks a day earlier. It said strikes on airports at Riyadh and Abha had killed three people and wounded 36.
The authority said the injuries ranged from minor to severe, and that there was material damage.
It reported the attacks in a statement on social media.
The Houthis have claimed a series of attacks on Saudi airports over the past week.
The Houthi military spokesperson said the group fired a ballistic missile at King Khalid airport, and that it hit its target and disrupted air traffic.
The group had warned global airlines earlier in the week, saying it was doing so for the last time.
It has warned that the conflict will be a long one.
The group has told airlines to stay out of Saudi airspace. It said aircraft other than those flying over Mecca and Medina would be treated as targets.
At least three people were wounded in attacks on the airports at Jazan and Najran, near the Yemeni border.
A further strike hit the Riyadh airport on Thursday.
The civil aviation authority said that attack killed three Saudi citizens. Those deaths were separate from the three killed earlier in the week.
The authority said the first strike hit airport facilities and the second hit an aircraft.
It was the first confirmed attack on a Saudia aircraft since the offensive began.
Saudia said one of them was Captain Hamoud Ali al-Kalthami, a pilot, in an obituary issued Friday.
The airline said one of its aircraft was damaged on the ground, with no passengers aboard.
Riyadh airport reopened on Friday, and the aviation authority said air traffic had returned to normal.
Saudi authorities said they were assessing the damage and putting measures in place to ensure passenger safety.
The condemnations were not confined to Abu Dhabi. The United Nations, the United Kingdom and several Arab states also condemned the attacks.
The attacks come in the second week of a Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government launched that offensive the previous weekend. It followed the seizure by Houthi forces of a stretch of territory along the Bab al-Mandab strait in September.
The coalition said about 100 aircraft took part in the opening phase.
Yemeni government forces have claimed control of the Bab al-Mandab coastline and the port of Mokha. The Houthis have not confirmed losing ground there.
The coalition said its forces carried out 97 targeting operations against Houthi reinforcements on the Tor al-Baha front and the Taiz axis.
It said on Thursday that it intercepted two ballistic missiles heading toward Riyadh and a third aimed at Khamis Mushait.
It said on Friday that it destroyed three rocket launch platforms.
Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said attacks on civilians and civilian facilities would be met with resolve.
Saudi airports have been targeted before in the current escalation. The coalition said it intercepted a suspected Houthi ballistic missile aimed at King Khalid on 18 September.
An explosion was heard near the airport the following day, and black smoke rose from a fuel storage area.
Saudi Arabia said in September that Houthi attacks on civilian and energy sites had wounded 73 people.
Yemen’s war was largely frozen for years before the current escalation.
It has driven one of the world’s largest relief operations. The United Nations humanitarian plan for 2026 says more than 22 million people in Yemen need assistance.
The plan says 18.3 million people are acutely food insecure, and that more than 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely.
It records 5.2 million displaced people and seeks 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million of those in need.
The attacks have disrupted air travel. At least 124 flights to and from Riyadh were cancelled by Friday afternoon, according to FlightAware.
Hundreds more had been cancelled the previous day.
Air India suspended operations through Saturday, the Indian Embassy said. Lufthansa Group suspended its Riyadh flights through 16 October.
Pakistan International Airlines also halted service.
Abha airport lies in southern Saudi Arabia, close to the Yemeni border. King Khalid airport serves the capital.
The Emirati statement did not say whether the UAE would take any further step.
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