Yemen conflict escalates as Saudi Arabia faces security dilemma

More deaths and injuries were reported in Yemen and Saudi Arabia on Friday as the UN envoy for Yemen warned that the country had returned to "full-scale war," with hostilities spreading across multiple front lines.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said on Friday that three Saudi citizens, including an airline pilot, were killed and a number of others of various nationalities were injured in two attacks targeting Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on Thursday.

The first attack targeted facilities at the airport, while the second hit an aircraft belonging to the country's national carrier, Saudia, GACA said in a statement.

GACA said airport operations and air traffic have resumed.

Airlines, including Qatar Airways, flydubai and Etihad Airways, have announced the cancellation of several flights to and from Riyadh over the next few days.

Fighting intensifies across multiple fronts The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Houthis said on Saturday it destroyed more than 100 military targets in a "large-scale operation" against the group.

"We are carrying out a large-scale operation targeting the personnel and capabilities of the Houthi terrorist militia," Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi coalition, wrote on X.

"We destroyed 136 military targets in areas controlled by the Houthi terrorist militia," he said in a separate post.

The Houthis' Almasirah TV channel reported that Saudi missiles targeted areas in the northwestern Yemeni governorate of Saada.

It also reported that two airport employees were killed and two others wounded in an airstrike on Sanaa International Airport on Friday afternoon.

Fighting also intensified between the Houthis and government forces, backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, in southwestern Yemen, particularly around the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Earlier on Friday, Yemeni government forces renewed an offensive against Houthi positions near Bab al-Mandab, seeking to expand recent gains and push deeper into Houthi-held areas overlooking the vital international shipping route, a government military official told Xinhua.

However, Al-Masirah TV, gave a conflicting account, saying Houthi forces had repelled government troops advancing from the neighboring province of Lahj toward the southern approaches to Bab al-Mandab, claiming dozens of casualties among the advancing forces.

Security dilemma for Saudi Arabia As Houthi attacks continue, Saudi Arabia is seeking military support from countries including Türkiye and Syria, amid uncertainty over the extent of US involvement in the conflict.