Updates with details throughout
Yemen's Houthis on Monday threatened to target all civilian flights using Saudi Arabia's airspace, after the militant group appeared to be losing ground in the latest bout of fighting of the country's civil war.
In a social media post the Houthi military headquarters claimed that it carried out an attack on the King Khalid airport in Riyadh and other civilian airports in Saudi Arabia and that, further, it attacked Saudi Aramco's Rabigh refinery on the Red Sea coast. There has been no independent confirmation of those claims.
The warning follows a large-scale offensive against the Houthis by Yemen's internationally recognised and Saudi-backed government, which said it had made some gains against the Houthis.
The Houthi militants warned "all international airlines using Saudi airspace to cease their flights, as it has become an operations zone for our forces." But Saudi airspace remains open and commercial flights continue to operate as of 20:30 GMT on Monday, according to Flightradar24.com flight-tracking data. Saudi aviation regulator GACA and air navigation provider Sans have announced no operating restrictions.
But the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) last week advised airlines to avoid parts of the Jeddah flight information region in Saudi Arabia because of escalating Houthi missile and drone attacks. Jeddah airport remains open. The US Embassy in Riyadh issued an updated travel advisory on Monday, advising of "the potential for aerial drone or missile attacks on Saudi Arabia".
President Donald Trump's administration so far has declined to announce provision of air defense and other military support for Riyadh, despite the Houthis' attacks on the Saudi energy infrastructure.
"It'll all work out very well," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday, about the Saudi-backed offensive against the Houthis.
"The US has a defense and security agreement with Saudi Arabia and we intend to live by it," secretary of state Marco Rubio said at a briefing in Washington on Monday, but he added that "I won't discuss details further than that".
But Turkey and Pakistan, which signed an informal defense alliance with Saudi Arabia last month, indicated on Monday that they may provide military support for Riyadh. A joint statement by the three countries on Monday pledged to "move immediately" to take "the necessary measures to provide the agreed military forces and resources and ensure their rapid deployment in the Kingdom".
