Houthi attacks widen to Riyadh airport and Aramco's Dhahran headquarters

Flight operations at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh were suspended as the militant group's campaign reaches the Saudi capital

Saudi Arabia's conflict with the Houthis is widening. The group has moved its targeting beyond military and energy sites to King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, where operations have been suspended, and to Aramco's corporate headquarters in Dhahran.

The campaign has built over weeks. Saudi Arabia intercepted two more ballistic missiles on Saturday, part of a run of strikes reaching Riyadh, Jeddah and border provinces since September. Flights were suspended at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah on Sunday after several explosions were reported there, and Brent crude climbed to $110 a barrel the same day as attacks continued near the Bab el-Mandeb strait. A Riyadh explosion on Monday has not been explained by Saudi authorities. A Houthi military source has also warned airlines off Saudi airspace altogether.

USO is down 0.18% at $161.47 a share following a Houthi claim of fresh strikes on Saudi infrastructure. Egypt has vowed to protect Saudi Arabia and called an emergency parliamentary session after a week of strikes reaching Riyadh and Jeddah.

The shift from export infrastructure and provincial airports to the capital's main international gateway and Aramco's headquarters marks the clearest widening of the campaign's target set so far, beyond the airport damage and Dhahran strike already recorded this month. A suspended Riyadh airport is a direct hit on commercial aviation and civilian life in the capital, unlike the intercepted or unconfirmed strikes reported earlier at Khamis Mushait and Yanbu. Mediation efforts from Oman, Russia and China are running alongside the strikes, and the move into the capital's core economic and transit sites tests whether that diplomacy can keep pace with an attack tempo that keeps finding higher-value targets.