Yemen’s Saudi-backed government bombed the runway at Sanaa International Airport on Monday to prevent an Iranian plane from landing in the Yemeni capital, in what the BBC called the most significant escalation with the Iran-aligned Houthis in years. The Houthis blamed the kingdom that backs the Yemeni government and fired back within hours, launching ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport. The Saudi-led coalition said its air defenses intercepted the missiles and no casualties were reported.
The exchange broke an informal four-year truce between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, according to Reuters. Yemen’s government, based in Aden, said the Houthis had refused to use a Yemenia national flight and insisted on bringing their delegation home from Tehran on the Iranian aircraft, a Mahan Air flight that the government said it had explicitly denied permission to land.
Airstrike at Sanaa, and the Plane That Got Through Anyway
Yemen’s internationally recognized government said its forces struck Sanaa International Airport runway Monday, in an operation it framed as a defense of Yemeni airspace. The defense ministry statement accused the Houthis of preventing Yemenia, the national airline, from landing while insisting on accepting an Iranian plane, and said the Houthi decision to allow the Iranian aircraft was what triggered the targeting of the runway. Houthi broadcaster al-Masirah reported that both the departure and landing runways were hit. The strike came after weeks of tension over Iranian flights into Houthi-held territory.
Yemeni defense minister Gen. Taher al-Aqili, posting on X earlier in the day, said the government’s “patience has run out” and warned that forces would “confront and deal with the hostile aircraft violating Yemeni airspace and sovereignty by all available means.” The defense ministry separately ordered civilians, workers, diplomatic missions and humanitarian organizations to evacuate the airport and its surroundings until further notice. The government’s broader statement added that all airports in Yemen were “closed until further notice, with immediate effect.”
The Houthis, who control Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, said the Iranian plane had nonetheless completed its mission. The group’s transportation minister, quoted by al-Masirah, said the aircraft “has landed on the homeland’s soil, carrying a number of medical patients and stranded citizens, accompanied by the official delegation of the Republic of Yemen.” The plane, the Houthis later confirmed, 150 km southwest at Hodeidah, on the Red Sea coast.
The Funeral Delegation That Lit the Fuse
The plane the Yemeni government wanted kept out had flown a Houthi delegation to Tehran for the funeral of the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Yemeni war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized Sanaa and forced the internationally recognized government into exile in Aden. By the time of Khamenei’s funeral, the Houthi delegation’s travel had become a test of who controlled Yemeni airspace.
The Houthi delegation had traveled to Tehran aboard a Mahan Air flight, the Iranian carrier the Yemeni government named in its Monday statement. Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, headed by Rashad al-Alimi, said Iran had requested permission to operate a return flight from Tehran to Sanaa for the delegation. The council denied the request, saying the Houthis had insisted on receiving the Iranian flight “outside the legal and sovereign frameworks governing civil aviation.” The defense ministry said the Houthis had refused to allow a Yemenia flight to land in the delegation’s place. The runway strike, the government argued, was the direct response to that decision.
Tensions had been building since earlier this month, when the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of attacking an Iranian plane that had landed in Sanaa and taken off carrying the delegation. At the time, the rebels threatened to hit Saudi airports and vital Saudi assets if Riyadh attempted any further action. Monday’s strike, the Houthis said, was Saudi Arabia “ending the de-escalation phase.” Saree went further on Telegram, accusing the kingdom of aiming to close Sanaa airport to “humanitarian flights carrying patients and stranded individuals.”
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the strike on Sanaa as a clear violation of international law. Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, quoted by state news agency IRNA, called it an affront to Yemen’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Alimi’s council said in a statement that the Houthis had insisted on the Iranian flight in violation of civil aviation rules.
Houthis Fire Missiles at Saudi Arabia’s Abha Airport
Within hours of the Sanaa strike, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced the group had launched ballistic missiles and drones at Abha International Airport in Saudi Arabia’s southwest. Abha is the capital of a mountainous southern region bordering Yemen, a popular summer escape for Saudis. Saree framed the attack as retaliation for what he called “blatant aggression” by Saudi Arabia and warned airlines against flying through Saudi airspace until the “blockade” on Sanaa International Airport was lifted, a framing that has now reached the moment the four-year truce collapsed.
The Saudi-led coalition confirmed the launches and said its air defenses had intercepted them. “Air defences have dealt with ballistic missile threats launched by the terrorist Houthi militia towards the Southern Region,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki wrote on X. No casualties were reported.
Earlier Monday, the Saudi government’s communication office had not immediately responded to requests for comment, according to Reuters. The missile launches marked the first claimed Houthi strike against Saudi territory since the informal truce went into effect in March 2022.
A Four-Year Truce Just Snapped
Reuters described Monday’s violence as breaking a four-year truce in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-aligned group. The informal pause had held since March 2022, when it took effect after Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure. The BBC called the Sanaa strike “the most significant escalation in the largely dormant conflict between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia since an informal truce took effect four years ago.” Saudi Arabia had continued exporting oil through a pipeline from its east to its Red Sea coast, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, and a wider conflict with the Houthis could challenge that arrangement. The truce had held through regional escalation tied to the Israel-Gaza war, during which the Houthis fired on Red Sea shipping and struck Israeli territory. Tensions on Saudi Arabia’s eastern flank had also subsided following an April truce in the Iran conflict, leaving the southern border as the quietest front.
Saree’s warning to airlines marked the first Houthi-claimed strike against Saudi territory since the truce took hold. Yemen’s foreign ministry had framed Saudi actions as a siege, vowing to break the Saudi siege “regardless of the cost” after an earlier Iranian plane landed at Sanaa. Saudi Arabia’s silence on the Sanaa operation, broken only by the coalition’s intercept statement, signaled the kingdom had not authorized public comment while missiles were still in the air.
Saudi Arabia is ending the de-escalation phase and bearing full responsibility for the consequences of its aggression. We affirm that this aggression will not go unanswered or unpunished.
The ICRC Plane Caught in the Crossfire
Information minister Al-Eryan said the Houthis were also detaining an aircraft belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross at Sanaa airport and were holding its pilot and co-pilot. The ICRC’s Middle East spokesperson, Hachem Osseiran, told Reuters all ICRC staff and the plane’s crew were safe and accounted for. The ICRC declined to comment further. The claim landed as the ICRC had recently mediated a prisoner exchange deal between the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government, a deal that fell through last week with both sides trading blame.
Reuters reported the failed exchange as a sign of growing tension even before Monday’s strike. The Houthis’ grip on the airport and its international humanitarian traffic gave the government a second front to argue on, in addition to the Iranian plane. For an outside observer, the dispute over the ICRC plane and the Sanaa runway strike together pointed to a war footing that had not been visible in months.
The government had framed its strike as a response to a specific, time-bound violation: an Iranian plane seeking to land without authorization. The Houthis framed the same events as Saudi aggression. The ICRC plane sat in the middle, a reminder of how thin the layer of humanitarian access had become.
What Reopens if the Truce Stays Dead
If Monday’s exchange holds, the southern Saudi border is back on the war map after four years of relative calm. The kingdom’s oil infrastructure, including facilities that were targeted in 2022, sits well within range of Houthi ballistic missiles and drones. Red Sea shipping, which the Houthis disrupted during the Israel-Gaza war, would face renewed pressure. Reuters noted that a wider Houthi conflict could challenge Saudi Arabia’s ability to keep exporting oil through its east-to-west pipeline, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. The Houthis have, in the past, struck Aramco facilities in Saudi Arabia. Days before the airport strike, Saudi and Yemeni military chiefs had met in Riyadh to push for an urgent peace, an effort Monday appeared to have undone.
The Yemeni civil war has already produced one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises on record. A return to active fighting would deepen that toll on top of the war in Gaza and a fragile ceasefire on the Iran-Saudi border. UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said his office was monitoring Yemeni airspace developments and called for dialogue that preserves the “relative calm Yemen has experienced since 2022.”
| Under the 2022 truce | Since Monday | |
|---|---|---|
| Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia | None claimed | Ballistic missiles and drones at Abha airport |
| Coalition action inside Yemen | Largely halted | Airstrike on Sanaa airport runway |
| Airspace clearance | Required from Saudi-led coalition | Disputed over an Iranian Mahan Air flight |
| Status of Yemeni airports | Limited, coalition-cleared flights | Runway damaged, evacuation ordered, all airports closed |
How the World Reacted
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting in New York on Monday afternoon. Assistant Secretary General Khaled Khiari told the council that Yemen and the wider region “cannot afford another cycle of escalation” and called on all actors to “constructively engage in negotiations under UN auspices.” The UK’s representative at the UN condemned what he called “reckless Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, which threaten regional security.” UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg said he was in contact with all sides to convince them to step back from the brink. Grundberg’s office called for dialogue that preserves the “relative calm Yemen has experienced since 2022.”
Iran’s foreign ministry, through spokesman Baghaei, condemned the attack on Sanaa as a clear violation of international law and the United Nations Charter. Saudi Arabia’s communication office had not responded to Reuters’ request for comment as of Monday evening. The silence from Riyadh reflected the kingdom’s reluctance to escalate a public war of words while still absorbing the missile exchange. Saudi Arabia’s coalition statement, by contrast, came from the military spokesman on social media, not the foreign ministry.
Neither side showed any sign of backing down. Saree’s warning to airlines was still active as of Monday evening. The Yemeni defense ministry’s evacuation order for the airport and its surroundings remained in place. The Houthi delegation had completed its mission in Tehran, and the Iranian plane was on Yemeni ground, just not on the ground the Saudi-backed government had tried to keep it from reaching.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened at Sanaa airport on July 13, 2026?
Yemen’s internationally recognized government bombed the runway at Sanaa International Airport, saying it wanted to prevent an Iranian Mahan Air flight from landing in the Houthi-controlled capital. Houthi authorities later said the plane had diverted to Hodeidah on the Red Sea coast.
Why did Yemen’s government strike its own country’s airport?
Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council said it had denied Iran’s request to operate the return flight for the Houthi delegation. The Houthis refused a Yemenia flight in the delegation’s place, the defense ministry said, and the runway strike was framed as the response to that unilateral decision.
Did the Iranian plane land?
Yes, according to the Houthis. The aircraft diverted to Hodeidah, about 150 km southwest of Sanaa, carrying medical patients, stranded citizens and the Houthi delegation returning from Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral in Tehran.
What truce broke on Monday?
An informal truce between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi movement that had taken effect in March 2022, after Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure. Reuters and the BBC both described Monday’s exchange as ending that four-year pause, the first claimed Houthi strike on Saudi territory since the pause began.
What was the international response?
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting. The UK condemned the Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia. Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the Sanaa airport strike as a clear violation of international law.
