Houthi attacks ground flights across Saudi 

SANAA, Oct 26: Attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have severely disrupted air travel across Saudi Arabia and threatened vital oil infrastructure, with nearly 86% of scheduled flights at Riyadh’s main airport cancelled this month, aviation data showed on Monday.

About 4,071 of 4,736 scheduled flights at King Khalid International Airport were cancelled between October 8 and October 25, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Nationwide, more than 7,800 flights, or 45% of scheduled departures from Saudi airports, were cancelled during the same period.

Saudi authorities partially reopened Riyadh’s airport on Sunday, allowing domestic flights to resume from Terminal 1 and international services from Terminal 2. However, the Houthis said on Monday they had attacked the airport again, describing it as a “military target”. An earlier attack claimed by the group on October 10 killed 13 people, the kingdom’s deadliest such incident in more than a decade.�" REUTERS