Saudi Arabian capital’s airport reopens to limited traffic

Major carriers, including Lufthansa and Air France, have cancelled flights through to mid-November. (iStock)

A limited number of Saudi airlines have taken off and landed at the country’s main airport, two days after authorities notified airlines that they could resume operations with prior permission.

Saudia and FlyNas were operating flights on Wednesday, according to flight-tracking data published by FlightAware.

Major carriers, including Lufthansa and Air France, have cancelled flights through to mid-November.

Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport has been hit multiple times by Yemen’s Houthi rebels this month and shut down on October 10.

The Houthis have acknowledged attacking the airport, claiming without evidence that Saudi Arabia provided military equipment to government forces through the facility.

Maj Gen Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, said in a social media post on Wednesday that five drones fired towards Saudi Arabia were intercepted and destroyed over the holy city of Medina.

The attack was the latest on Saudi Arabia since the resurgence of fighting with the Houthis in mid-July. The Yemeni rebels repeatedly struck targets in the kingdom, including oil facilities and airports, and engaged in fierce clashes with Saudi-backed Yemeni forces in Yemen.

The coalition, in turn, hit the rebel-held areas in Yemen including the capital, Sanaa, and provided air cover to a major offensive the Yemeni government launched earlier this month.

Houthi military spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Saree said a ballistic missile struck a military camp adjacent to Yemen’s Aden airport in the Khor Maksar district.

The Houthis claim the military camp houses a command centre for the Saudi-led forces fighting the rebels.

A transportation ministry official in Aden said a civilian plane had taken off from the airport before the strike, while the departure hall was evacuated.

He said operations in the airport were temporarily suspended and that there was no damage to the tarmac.

This is the second time the Houthis claim to have targeted the military camp inside the airport complex in five days and the third this month.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organisation (UKMTO) said on Wednesday that an unknown projectile ignited a fire on board a tanker in the Persian Gulf off Oman.

The attack occurred 11 nautical miles west of the coastal town of Bukha in the Omani province of Musandam, it said.

The UKMTO said the fire was extinguished and the tanker was at anchor, with its crew safe.

The attack was the latest against vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz without co-ordinating with Iran amid its conflict with the United States.

Iran is willing to “give diplomacy another chance” but is fully prepared to defend itself if full-scale war resumes, foreign minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in the Financial Times.

Mr Araghchi gave no details of talks with Washington through mediators on Iran’s recent seven-day proposal to end the war and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

He said there was “little reason to expect progress now”, citing what he described as Washington’s unwillingness to advance the talks while threatening further violence.

He warned against renewed US military action, saying: “I can say with complete and utter confidence that it will result in an even greater strategic failure.”

- Press Association