SANAA, Yemen — Saudi-backed forces struck the runway at Sanaa International Airport on July 13 to prevent a plane carrying a Houthi delegation to slain Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei’s funeral from landing, escalating a confrontation over direct flights between Houthi-controlled Yemen and Tehran.
The plane diverted to a Houthi-controlled airport in Hodeidah on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. The Houthis retaliated by launching missiles at Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia, which Saudi forces intercepted. The Houthis also issued a warning to commercial aviation: “We warn all airlines against crossing in Saudi airspace and they should take our warnings seriously until the blockade of Sana’a International Airport is lifted.”
Rashad al Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council — the executive body of Yemen’s Internationally Recognized Government — claimed responsibility for the airport strike. “[The armed forces] implemented the necessary defensive measures by targeting the runway at Sana’a Airport to protect national sovereignty,” Alimi said. Both the IRG and its armed forces are supported by Riyadh.
The confrontation began on July 3, when Iran sent a plane to Houthi territory to pick up the delegation. The Yemeni government described the flight as a “clear violation of Yemeni sovereignty.” Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, praised Iran for breaking what the Houthis call an “unjust siege” and issued a direct threat to Riyadh: “We warn the criminal Saudi enemy against repeating any attempt to breach the airspace or aggression targeting our country, as it will be met with a comprehensive response targeting its airports and vital interests on land and sea.”
Major General Turki al Maliki, spokesperson for the anti-Houthi Saudi-led coalition, confirmed the missile interception but did not comment on the earlier strikes against Sanaa International Airport. “The Coalition will respond with unprecedented determination and force to any and all attempts to target the Kingdom, its citizens and residents and national assets, or any attempt to violate the sovereignty of the brotherly Republic of Yemen,” Maliki said.
On July 14, the Houthis also claimed to have shot down a Saudi reconnaissance drone operating over Al Bayda, a south-central Yemeni governorate primarily under Houthi control. Saudi Arabia has not commented on that claim.
The exchange marks the sharpest military escalation between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis since a UN-brokered truce in 2022 eased the air blockade Saudi Arabia imposed after the Houthi seizure of Yemen’s capital in 2014. That truce permitted some civilian flights but kept direct flights between Tehran and Houthi territory prohibited over concerns that Iran’s theocratic regime would use air access to arm and resupply its proxy. The Houthis’ insistence on resuming those flights — and Iran’s willingness to facilitate them — now threatens to collapse the fragile arrangement entirely.