Coalition Offensive in Yemen Intertwines With Houthi Counterattacks; Saudi Airport Strikes Kill Foreign Workers

The Yemen war has caused new bloodshed in the Saudi heartland. According to The Hindu, Iran-backed Houthi forces launched attacks on October 7 against Abha Airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, killing three people. Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation did not identify the attackers, while the Houthis claimed responsibility for both airport strikes.

Those killed in the Abha Airport attack were Moroccan and Algerian nationals, with 28 others injured; the King Khalid Airport attack killed one Sudanese national and injured eight others. With Riyadh coming under repeated attacks in the past week, Saudi Aramco has newly installed cage-like fencing around oil depots and facilities near the capital's airport. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter, and repeated recent strikes on its oil and military assets have placed additional pressure on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait alternative shipping route that runs parallel to the Strait of Hormuz—passage through which has already been restricted due to the Iran war.

The attacks came as the Saudi-led coalition launched major ground and air offensives against territory along Yemen's western Red Sea coast and near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait seized by the Houthis a month earlier. With the Houthis controlling these positions, their ability to monitor Saudi-linked shipping has increased and they have sought to advance a blockade. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait carries approximately 12% of global trade. Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki claimed the interception of a ballistic missile north of Riyadh and the destruction of a launch platform in the Yemeni capital Sanaa used by the Houthis to strike the Saudi capital, though these claims have not been independently verified. Coalition forces on Monday recaptured several key areas around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The three dead came respectively from Morocco, Algeria, and Sudan—the war burning on the Red Sea coast has once again spilled over at the cost of third-country workers' lives. Saudi Arabia has long relied on foreign labor from Arab Africa and South Asia to keep its infrastructure running, and amid cycles of military escalation, these workers lack evacuation channels and institutional protection.

The coalition's renewed commitment of large-scale ground and air operations at the chokepoint of Red Sea shipping means this maritime corridor—which carries more than one-tenth of global trade—is being dragged into a regional war whose scope continues to expand. The coalition's statements have not been independently verified, but ports, oil depots, airports, and foreign workers' dormitories—whether in Riyadh or Yemen—have become the latest battlefronts of this war.