Saudi minister vows 'serious response' to Houthi attacks on airports
It comes after the armed group hit Riyadh's international airport and another facility, killing 13 people, in a significant escalation.
Saudi minister promises 'serious response' to Houthi attacks on airports
Saudi Arabia's energy minister has pledged a "serious" reaction to the deadly strikes on the kingdom's airports and oil and gas installations by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement.
"The events of recent weeks are serious. Our response must be equally serious," Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman told the WPC Energy Congress in Riyadh.
On Sunday, Saudi authorities said a Pakistani man was killed in an attack on a terminal at the capital's King Khalid International Airport. That came one day after a Houthi missile struck another terminal, killing 13 people and forcing it to close.
The Houthis said they carried out the attacks in response to "brutal Saudi aggression" against areas they control in western Yemen.
The Houthi-run health ministry said a child was killed and six other people were wounded in a Saudi air strike on a house in the capital, Sanaa, on Sunday.
A Saudi-led coalition has been giving air support to Yemeni pro-government forces fighting the Houthis on Yemen's Red Sea coast and in other areas.
Yemen has been ravaged by a civil war that started in 2014, when the Houthis drove the government out of Sanaa. The conflict intensified in 2015 after the Saudi-led coalition intervened in an effort to restore the government's authority.
A four-year informal ceasefire began to break down in July, when the Houthis announced a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia and started missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.
The Houthis said they were responding to what they describe as a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom. The Yemeni government said it was responsible for that strike, saying it was trying to stop an unauthorised Iranian plane from landing.
Last month, the Houthis launched a surprise offensive along Yemen's south-western Red Sea coast and pushed pro-government forces out of areas overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, at the southern end of the Red Sea.
They said they did not pose a threat to international shipping passing through the waterway, but that they would keep targeting vessels from Saudi Arabia.
However, the takeover of the strait helped drive up global oil prices because Saudi Arabia had been depending on the Red Sea for oil exports after the US and Israel's war with Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.
Last week, the Yemeni government said it had begun a new offensive aimed at retaking all territory held by the Houthis.
Pro-government forces said they were able to quickly retake areas around Bab al-Mandab with the help of intense Saudi air strikes, but the Houthis denied losing any territory.