Informative · Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia just got hit by the widest Houthi strike in years

1 hour ago · 6 October 2026Share

A General Atomics MQ-1L Predator drone in flight. — A General Atomics MQ-1L Predator drone in flight configuration. File photo. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc · CC0

Yemen's Houthi movement says it just fired a wave of missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia.

Six targets, in one night.

The airport that serves Riyadh, the capital. An Aramco oil refinery. Two airports in the south. A military air base. A military camp.

This is the widest set of targets the Houthis have named inside Saudi Arabia in years.

And it lands right in the middle of a wider war that only restarted two days ago.

So who's saying what? Brigadier General Yahya Saree is the Houthi military spokesperson. He gave the details in a video statement.

He says his group ran three separate operations, using what he called a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones.

Here's the list he gave. King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. An Aramco refinery at Rabigh, on the Red Sea coast. Abha International Airport. Khamis Mushait Air Base. The Aqifa camp in the Asir region. Plus what he called other critical sites in Najran and Jizan.

Yahya Saree says the Riyadh strike was precise and direct, and disrupted air traffic. He says the Rabigh strike started a fire.

Now here's the gap. Saudi Arabia has only confirmed part of this.

Its Civil Aviation Authority says two airports were hit — King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Jazan, and Najran International Airport. Three people were hurt.

That's it. Saudi Arabia has not confirmed Riyadh. Not Rabigh. Not Abha. Not Khamis Mushait.

Aramco hasn't responded to questions about Rabigh either. And Reuters says it could not independently verify the Houthi claims.

So right now there are two different accounts. The Houthis say six sites got hit. Saudi Arabia has confirmed two, both in the south, both minor.

And that gap matters, because of what Saudi Arabia isn't saying.

Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs put out a statement naming nine places it says were targeted — Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan, Najran, Taif and Yanbu. Plus attacks on ships in the southern Red Sea and near the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The ministry says quote "strongest condemnation and denunciation of the terrorist Houthi militia's continued targeting of civilians".

But the statement doesn't say whether any missile actually got through. Saudi Arabia has said before that its air defences dealt with incoming fire. This time, it hasn't said that.

The rest of this story is for members.

And there's more. Yahya Saree told international airlines to stay out of Saudi airspace completely.

With one exception. He said the airspace over Mecca and Medina would be spared.

So why did this happen? The Houthis call it retaliation.

Yahya Saree says Saudi Arabia ran 60 airstrikes and missile attacks in the previous 24 hours alone. Hitting Sanaa and five governorates — Al-Jawf, Taiz, Hajjah, Sa'dah and Ma'rib. He says civilians were killed, including women and children.

He puts the total number of Saudi strikes on Yemen since the fighting restarted at 1,576.

None of those numbers are independently confirmed.

So what restarted the fighting? An operation called Dawn of Yemen.

Rashad al-Alimi, the chairman of Yemen's internationally recognised Presidential Leadership Council, announced it two days ago. The goal: retake Houthi-held territory, including the capital, Sanaa.

A Saudi-led coalition is backing it. Major General Turki al-Maliki, the coalition's spokesperson, says 100 fighter jets took part, and that the coalition destroyed 324 high-value targets.

Yemeni government forces say they've taken the port city of Mocha, the town of Dhubab, and ground around the Bab al-Mandab Strait — the waterway at the mouth of the Red Sea.

A Houthi spokesperson disputes that. He calls the government's claims fabricated heroics and says his side still holds its ground.

The human cost is already large. The World Health Organization says the fighting since the offensive began has killed at least 959 people and wounded more than 4,200.

The UN's migration agency says more than 184,000 people have been displaced.

And other countries are already moving. Turkiye and Pakistan have agreed to rapidly send military forces to Saudi Arabia, under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement signed in August.

Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, says Saudi Arabia and Yemen's government have a right to defend themselves.

A truce between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis had held loosely since March 2022. It had already been broken once before, in July, when the Houthis struck Abha airport.

This time the break is wider. A capital city airport. An oil refinery. A military air base. And a warning to every airline flying over the country.

What's not known is whether anything actually hit Riyadh, Rabigh, Abha or Khamis Mushait. Saudi Arabia has named the strikes it will confirm, and left the rest unanswered.

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Saudi Arabia just got hit by the widest Houthi strike in years

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