Yemen’s ​Iran-aligned Houthis have said they struck Riyadh’s international airport, an Aramco refinery and several other sites in Saudi Arabia on Monday, as the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said they had destroyed Ho…

Yemen’s ​Iran-aligned Houthis have said they struck Riyadh’s international airport, an Aramco refinery and several other sites in Saudi Arabia on Monday, as the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said they had destroyed Houthi targets on the Red Sea coast.Meanwhile, Pakistan and Turkey have pledged to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia under a new mutual defence pact following weeks of Houthi attacks, as Riyadh and its Yemeni government allies began a push aimed at retaking all territory held by the group.According to reports, the Yemeni military said it carried out more than 1,000 strikes and began an offensive against the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, while the Saudi-led coalition supporting the internationally recognised government said 100 warplanes flew sorties at dawn.Explained | Who are the Houthis, Iran’s allies in Yemen?Yemen leader announces major military operations against Iran-backed Houthis A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Turki Al-Malki, said on X that its naval forces had hit “military targets” belonging to the Houthis in Hodeida on the Red Sea coast.They “destroyed weapons depots, facilities storing booby-trapped boats and naval mines” and “thwarted a planned attack” targeting waterways in the southern Red Sea, he said.Loud explosions rattled Riyadh on Monday evening as the fighting intensified, and a Houthi spokesman said the group had hit the Saudi capital’s King Khalid International Airport as well as an Aramco refinery and other targets in the kingdom’s south.Last month the Iran-backed group seized swathes of coastline along the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, a chokepoint for oil and cargo shipping, in Yemen’s deadliest fighting in years.The Houthis have also been attacking neighbouring Saudi Arabia since Yemen’s civil war flared back to life, and have declared a maritime blockade on its ships.On Monday, representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey held an emergency meeting in Riyadh under the auspices of a joint defence agreement signed in August committing them to come to each other’s aid in the event of any attack.They also agreed “to take the necessary measures to provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment in the Kingdom”.(With agency inputs)

Source: Deccan Herald