In brief
During the night of 29 October 2026, Yemen's Houthi movement announced six missile and drone strikes on Saudi refineries, airports and a military command centre. The Saudi‑led coalition said it destroyed three missiles, though debris damaged a Riyadh house and injured a citizen. A Wikipedia entry adds that the attacks on three Saudi airports killed 22 people.
On 29 October 2026 Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed it had launched six missile and drone attacks on Saudi oil refineries, airports and a military position, positioning the strike as retaliation for recent Saudi airstrikes.
The Xinhua news agency reported that Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the three ballistic missiles hit the Ras Tanura refinery, the Abqaiq facilities of Saudi Aramco and the Rabigh refinery on Saudi’s Red Sea coast.
According to Sarea’s televised statement, two other operations targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with missiles and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam with a drone that, he claimed, disrupted air traffic. A further strike was reported on a command centre for Saudi military forces in the southern border region of Najran, causing casualties among soldiers and officers.
The Saudi‑led coalition said it intercepted three of the six missiles launched by the Houthis – two aimed for Riyadh and one for the Eastern Province. Debris from the intercepted missiles fell over Riyadh, where the General Directorate of Civil Defense recorded a minor injury to a citizen and damage to a house and a vehicle, noting that civil‑defence teams followed standard procedures.
An entry in Wikipedia recounts that the October 2026 attacks on three Saudi airports – King Khalid, King Fahd and an unnamed airport – resulted in 22 deaths, adding a new dimension to the escalating cross‑border conflict.
Houthi claims of retaliation are framed in the broader backdrop of Yemen’s war, which began in 2014 when the movement seized Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting a Saudi‑led coalition intervention in 2015 to support the Yemeni government.
The Houthi statement came amid a series of mutual cross‑border strikes over recent weeks, with Saudi airstrikes reportedly hitting Houthi positions in Yemen while the movement retaliated from Yemen Highlands with ballistic missiles and drones.
Saudi officials confirmed interception of the missiles but did not detail the extent of the damage to the targeted infrastructure, while Houthi sources remain firm that the attacks hit key facilities and caused casualties among Saudi military personnel.
