Yemen’s Houthi movement on Sunday renewed a sweeping warning to airlines, aviation workers and passengers to stay away from Saudi airports and airspace, exempting only the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The warning came a day after a strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport killed 12 people and injured more than 300.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree posted on X that Saudi airports and airspace remained exposed to targeting and had become a theatre of operations for the group’s forces. He said attacks would continue under the group’s declared formula of airport for airport, blockade for blockade and escalation for escalation, and urged everyone to take the warnings seriously.

Deadliest strike on Saudi soil in a decade

Saturday’s attack on the Riyadh airport was the deadliest of its kind in the kingdom in more than a decade, according to Reuters. Reports said the strike hit terminals where passengers were waiting for domestic flights, and several foreign nationals were among the dead. The Houthis stopped short of formally claiming the attack but immediately threatened further strikes. The Saudi-led coalition called the strike a full-fledged war crime and vowed to respond.

The attack forced the temporary closure of King Khalid International Airport. The coalition also said a projectile had fallen near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam in the kingdom’s Eastern Province, and reported intercepting a drone in the region on Sunday.

Escalation in the Yemen conflict

The warning comes amid intensifying fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces. Saudi Arabia has stepped up its military involvement in Yemen in recent weeks, launching strikes against the Houthis and backing a Yemeni government counteroffensive after the group seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast last month.

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Washington was considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis, calling the conflict a spillover from the wider war on Iran launched by the United States and Israel in February. Despite the attack, the Saudi energy ministry said a long-planned international energy conference would still go ahead in Riyadh on Sunday.