# Houthis have struck Riyadh's main airport 20 times this month, the Saudi-led coalition says, as missiles hit Aden's presidential palace

A Yemeni minister said five people were killed at Aden's Maashiq Palace, while a coalition counteroffensive on the Red Sea coast is contesting territory the Houthis seized in September.

- Published: 2026-10-16T05:18:24.267Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/2026-10-16/houthis-have-struck-riyadh-s-main-airport-20-times-this-mont
- Publisher: Polylog (Global desk)
- Section: geopolitics
- Sources: [Africanews](http://www.africanews.com/2026/10/15/houthis-struck-riyadh-airport-20-times-in-october-saudi-led-coalition-says/), [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/15/world/middleeast/yemen-strike-aden-palace.html), [Financial Times](https://www.ft.com/content/7a260d99-c761-4ab1-8185-d7e0225a8472?syn-25a6b1a6=1)

A spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition said the Houthi movement has struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh [20 times since the start of October](http://www.africanews.com/2026/10/15/houthis-struck-riyadh-airport-20-times-in-october-saudi-led-coalition-says/). By the coalition's count, the attacks used 10 drones, four ballistic missiles, four cruise missiles and two unidentified projectiles. Saudi authorities reported earlier that one attack on the airport [killed one person and wounded 11](https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/578746.aspx), a day after another deadly strike had forced a suspension of operations.

The Houthis also struck inside Yemen. Missiles hit the Maashiq Palace in Aden, the seat of the internationally recognized government, and [killed five people, according to a Yemeni minister](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/15/world/middleeast/yemen-strike-aden-palace.html). Earlier in the month the Houthis said they had targeted the Riyadh airport, Abha International Airport and the Khamis Mushait military base. They also [fired missiles and drones at Aden's airport](https://www.gulftoday.ae/news/2026/10/07/houthis-claim-new-attacks-on-saudi-arabia-yemens-aden-airport).

The ground war has moved toward the main shipping lane. The Houthis launched an offensive in September that has [displaced more than 145,000 people](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-10-07-houthis-attack-aden-airport-as-fighting-intensifies-in-yemen.md). Government forces, supported by coalition air power, then counterattacked along the Red Sea coast around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the city of Mocha and pushed the Houthis out of areas they had taken.

The Financial Times describes Houthi aims in their fight with Saudi Arabia as [ranging from financial and military goals to ambitions of regional power](https://www.ft.com/content/7a260d99-c761-4ab1-8185-d7e0225a8472?syn-25a6b1a6=1). The group has fought the coalition since 2015 and is aligned with Iran. Its campaign now comes while the United States enforces a blockade of Iranian ports, which gives Tehran's allies a reason to raise the cost to Washington's Gulf partners.

## What this means

The most important economic point is geographic. Saudi Arabia's main way to export crude without passing through the Strait of Hormuz is its pipeline to Red Sea ports. A Houthi war on the Red Sea coast and Saudi soil puts that alternative route under the same kind of risk the Gulf route already carries. The exposed groups are Saudi aviation and tourism, foreign investors in the kingdom's development program, shipping insurers on the Bab el-Mandeb route, and importers who assumed Riyadh could reroute supply. The Houthis cannot defeat the coalition. They can, however, impose repeated costs with cheap drones and missiles, and Saudi air defenses must pay far more to stop each one. That asymmetry has held since the 2019 Abqaiq attack temporarily cut half of Saudi crude output. Markets price the Hormuz risk but treat Saudi Arabia's Red Sea route as safe, and the desk sees that as the point where the consensus is likeliest to be wrong. The likelier outcome over the coming months is continued Houthi strikes on Saudi airports and infrastructure, rising insurance costs on Red Sea routes and delays to foreign investment in the kingdom. That depends on Iran continuing to supply the group while it is itself under blockade. It would be proved wrong by a Saudi-Houthi truce or by a coalition advance that secures the coast and ends cross-border fire.

## What to watch

- Any Houthi strike on Saudi export terminals or pipeline facilities on the Red Sea coast. That would directly threaten the main route around Hormuz.
- The frequency of flight suspensions at Riyadh's airport. More frequent suspensions would show Saudi air defenses are not keeping pace.
- Front lines around Mocha and the Bab el-Mandeb. Coalition control of the coast would reduce the threat to shipping, and Houthi gains would raise it.