Iran War Updates: Deadly Houthi attacks keep Saudi airport closed as Trump considers U.S. strikes in Yemen

Airstrikes targeted two districts in Yemen’s Houthi-held capital of Sanaa, the Iran-backed rebel group said Monday, accusing Saudi Arabia of launching the attacks around midnight local time. 

A spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi-run health ministry said the strikes killed one person and wounded 12 others in Sanaa.

Ministry spokesman Anees al-Asbahi said a strike on a salt factory in Sanaa’s Hamadan district killed on eman and wounded eight people. A separate strike on a house wounded a woman and three children, he said.

The rebels’ media center said Saudi Arabia carried out the strikes, which came as the Houthis continued to fire missiles and drones at the Saudi capital’s primary airport and other infrastructure. 

Those attacks have killed at least 20 people at Saudi airports over the last week, including three killed on Oct. 6 and 7 at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and Abha International Airport; three killed at King Khalid on Oct. 8; 13 people killed by the deadliest single strike on Riyadh’s airport Sunday; and one who died in the latest attack on the facility on Sunday.

Saudi Arabian authorities did not immediately confirm their latest strikes in Yemen, but the kingdom has been battling the Iran-backed Houthi rebels for more than a decade in the country.

CBS/AP

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday that Tehran was still reviewing the U.S. response to a ceasefire proposal Iran put on the table last month, and that the regime continues communicating via mediators.

“I can tell you that the exchange of messages between Iran and the United States through mediators is continuing,” Araghchi said, adding that there had “already been considerable discussion of the seven points” in the proposal.

Late last month Iran presented a ceasefire proposal that calls for Tehran to lift its restrictions on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and to resume talks on its nuclear program in seven days if the U.S. lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observes a ceasefire that includes Lebanon.

President Trump has publicly rejected the Iranian offer, but negotiations have continued between the two sides via mediators.

The U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia on Monday urged American citizens to exercise “extreme caution” when using all major airports in the country, following a weekend of strikes that killed a total of 13 people.

“The U.S. Mission is aware of additional attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and targeted attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam on October 11,” the embassy said in a statement.

“Please take extreme caution when using all major airports in Saudi Arabia,” it added.

The U.S. military disabled a Panama-flagged commercial vessel in the Gulf of Oman Saturday by firing on it with a fighter jet, the U.S. military’s Central Command said.

According to CENTCOM, the fighter jet fired a “precision munition” at  the Ocean Molica, also known as the “Arika Sun,” that disabled the “ship’s propulsion without harming the crew.”

The ship had recently departed an Iranian port. Iran’s ports have been under a U.S. blockade since a ceasefire between the two countries collapsed in July.  

Four commercial vessels have been disabled by U.S. forces and 135 ships have been turned around since the blockade took effect on July 14, CENTCOM said.

During that period, U.S. forces have also destroyed 10 tankers that are believed to be part of a “shadow fleet” that transports sanctioned Iranian oil and petroleum products, CENTCOM said.

A projectile struck a passenger terminal at the international airport in Riyadh on Sunday, a day after a missile hit the same terminal and killed 13 people, the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said. The Houthis claimed responsibility for those attacks and others.

Saudi authorities said one person, described as a Pakistani national, was killed, and 11 were injured in the latest attack on the domestic terminal complex at King Khalid International Airport.

The airport – struck four times in the past five days – has been closed since Saturday’s missile attack, which was the deadliest in a Gulf Arab nation since the Iran war began. Over 300 other people were wounded, some critically.

One American citizen was among the victims of Saturday’s strike, the U.S. embassy in Riyadh said.

CBS/AP

President Trump left open the possibility the U.S. will join Saudi Arabia’s battle against the Iran-backed Houthis on Saturday.

“We may. We’re gonna look at it,” Mr. Trump said when asked about the possibility as he left the White House for a campaign rally in Tennessee. “We just found out about the recent attack [on the airport]. So we’ll make a decision– we move very quickly.”

Mr. Trump was also asked about whether the Houthi strike on Riyadh’s airport would change his previously announced decision not to launch any potential strikes on Iran until after the midterms.

“Well, we’re gonna take a look,” he responded.

Multiple people were injured in a strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Saturday. The Houthis have not claimed responsibility for the attack, but Saudi Arabia’s aviation authority said the strike was part of “continued attacks targeting civil aviation facilities in the Kingdom.”