Saudis probe how defense systems failed to stop deadly Houthi attack on Riyadh airport
CAIRO (AP) — Saudi Arabia has launched an investigation to determine how its air defenses failed to intercept a barrage of missiles and drones fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, including an attack on Riyadh airport that killed at least 13 people and wounded over 300, two regional officials said Monday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said the initial probe showed that Yemen's Houthis first fired multiple drones to pave the way for a mix of cruise and ballistic missiles to reach Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport.
The Houthis possess ballistic missiles and advanced systems fitted with warheads that can change direction during flight and pose a challenge to Patriot interceptors and other defense systems used by the Saudis.
One of the officials said the investigation also aims to find out why air defense systems did not provide earlier warning of the attack in which the Houthi missiles and drones flew over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to reach Riyadh.
The incident, one of a string of Houthi attacks since last week on Saudi airports, has exposed vulnerabilities in Saudi Arabia's defense system and signaled a dangerous inflection point in an expanding Mideast conflict that began more than seven months ago when the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran.
The Saudi-led coalition also said it had twice intercepted and destroyed ballistic missiles launched Monday by the Houthis toward Riyadh. At least three explosions could be heard Monday night in the city. Civil defense officials later said the danger had passed.
The rebels later said they had targeted King Khalid Airport on Monday, warning international airlines that all Saudi airports, except those in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, were unsafe.
Earlier on Monday, the Saudi state-run media reported that its military was responding to a new attack involving drones and cruise missiles, but provided no details.
“The events of recent weeks are serious,” Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman told the World Petroleum Energy Congress in Riyadh on Monday. “Our response must be equally serious.”
The Saudi government-run Center for International Communication, which oversees foreign media, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the probe into defense failures.
The Saudis want the U.S. to become more directly involved in their fight against the Houthis. The U.S. has provided intelligence sharing, target identification and planning for a Saudi-led offensive, but has held off on carrying out strikes against the Houthis.
A U.S. intervention could prompt the Houthis to try to halt shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea off Yemen, restricting the flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf.
The flow of Mideast oil has already been complicated by Iranian efforts to choke off the Strait of Hormuz, where about one-fifth of the world's oil flowed before the U.S.-Iran war began.
The rebels seized key areas along the Bab el-Mandeb last month. The Saudi-led coalition, backing forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, has been trying to retake them.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday after the deadly airport strike that he was looking at the possibility of carrying out U.S. attacks against the Houthis.
Trump said Monday that he had spoken with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but didn’t offer any details about the call. He also said the Houthis were “misbehaving very badly,” but didn't say anything about whether the U.S. would respond to the rebels.
The conflict comes at a delicate time for Trump, just weeks before U.S. midterm elections that will decide if his Republican Party keeps control of Congress.
Persistent inflation and high gas prices fueled by the ongoing conflict with Iran have driven widespread American disapproval of that war. Expanding U.S. military involvement in the region risks further stoking voters' resentment.
Yemen’s Houthi-run health ministry said Monday that airstrikes on a government complex and a house in the northern province of al-Jawf killed nine people, including five children and a woman, and wounded seven others, according to the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency.
Houthi officials also said that Saudi Arabia carried out new strikes on the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, killing one person and wounding 12.
Ministry spokesperson Anees al-Asbahi said 107 Yemenis have been killed by the Saudi-led coalition since Sept. 3, and 278 were injured. Over 60% of casualties were women and children, he said.
The Riyadh airport remained closed on Monday and workers in the capital's financial district were told to work from home.
However, the Saudis on Monday continued with the second day of the World Petroleum Energy Congress.
Separately, an Emirati diplomat on Monday called for “joint Gulf action” to defend against attacks by Iran and its allied groups.
Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the rulers of the United Arab Emirates, said Iran and its allies wrongly assessed that Gulf Arabs were “the weakest link” in the U.S. war against Iran, during which Tehran and its allies repeatedly attacked Arab countries on the other side of the Gulf.
“It has become clear that we are all targeted, and that our security is indivisible,” he wrote on social media.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday expressed concern about fighting between the Saudis and Houthis and said Iran would be ready to settle disputes.
“We are severely concerned about developments in the Arabian Peninsula,” spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said at his weekly briefing. “We have many times announced readiness for applying our good offices in order to facilitate talks between the two sides.”
Baghaei said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, spoke by phone on Sunday about the situation but did not offer details.
Dozens of mourners attended the Monday funeral for a Jordanian killed in the missile strike on King Khalid International Airport.
Mahmoud Al-Barqawi, 33, who worked in a Riyadh cafe and was the father of two children, was buried after a funeral procession began at a mosque in Amman.
His father, Hasan al-Barqawi, said the family was struggling to cope.
“No one can truly feel the pain of this tragedy,” he said.
The strike also wounded four Jordanian citizens.
Jordan’s Royal Court chief Yousef Al-Issawi attended the funeral, offering condolences on behalf of the king and crown prince.
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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Jerusalem, Fatma Khaled in Cairo and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
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