Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
The spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab Coalition, Turki Al-Maliki, announced on Monday evening that coalition air defenses had intercepted a ballistic missile threat launched by the Houthi group toward southern Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, two sources told Yemen Monitor that the Houthis launched ballistic missiles from the northern Yemeni governorates of Saada and Hajjah toward Saudi Arabia.
Earlier in the day, the Houthi group threatened to retaliate for the airstrike on Sana’a Airport, saying the attack “would not go unpunished” and that any response “would not be confined to Yemen,” in an apparent reference to a possible escalation that could extend to the Bab al-Mandab Strait and include attacks on Saudi Arabia.
The Houthi group’s official spokesman, Mohammed Abdulsalam, also signaled an imminent military response. In a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), he said the attack “will not go unanswered,” describing it as “a major violation of the 2022 truce.”
Sana’a Airport was struck by military aircraft shortly after an Iranian aircraft entered Yemeni airspace on Monday afternoon. The Yemeni government described the flight as “a violation of sovereignty,” saying it was the second time within a week that Iran had violated Yemeni airspace. According to the report, the flight was intended to return a Houthi delegation that had departed by the same route to attend the funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian Mahan Air aircraft was initially unable to land at Sana’a Airport and circled in the air for several hours before successfully landing at Hudaidah Airport, which received its first flight since 2015.
