By Mohammed Ghobari, Tala Ramadan and Timour Azhari
RIYADH, July 13 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said it intercepted ballistic missiles fired at the country's south by Yemen's Houthi movement on Monday after the group accused Riyadh of striking an airport they control, testing a years-long truce in the conflict between the kingdom and the Iran-aligned group.
Saudi air defenses "have dealt with a threat from ballistic missiles launched by the terrorist Houthi militia toward the southern region," the spokesperson
for a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said on X.
Earlier Monday, the Houthi movement that controls northern Yemen accused Saudi Arabia of launching airstrikes against the international airport in Sanaa, and vowed to retaliate. The strikes were claimed by Yemen's internationally recognized government, which is heavily backed by Riyadh, where many of its members reside.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree had called the attacks "blatant aggression" and said they had ended a period of de-escalation. He said Saudi Arabia would bear the consequences and that the attack would not go unanswered.
The Saudi government's communication office did not immediately respond to the accusations.
The Yemeni government's defence ministry said the runway at Sanaa International Airport had been targeted to prevent an Iranian plane from landing. An armed forces spokesman later said the aircraft had landed at Houthi-controlled Hodeidah airport.
It was unclear whether any attempt had been made to stop it from landing in Hodeidah, about 150 km (93 miles) southwest of Sanaa, on Yemen's Red Sea coast.
Another minister said the Houthis were detaining another plane, belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross, at Sanaa airport.
The general aviation authority of Yemen's Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government briefly ordered the closure of all airports nationwide, before announcing hours later that they had reopened.
REGIONAL RISK
Yemen has faced civil war and proxy warfare from outside powers for more than a decade after the Houthis seized the capital and forced the internationally recognised government to relocate to the south.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 against the Houthis, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Violence flared again late last year after a separatist movement backed by the United Arab Emirates swept through territory in the south, splintering the Saudi-led coalition created to fight the Houthis.
Still, a 2022 truce between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis has largely held, despite regional escalation tied to the Israel-Gaza war, where the Houthis fired on numerous Red Sea ships, as well as the Iran conflict.
Monday's violence may upset broader efforts to defuse conflict in the region, given the Houthis are aligned with Tehran.
Saudi Arabia has remained relatively isolated from the Iran conflict, as it is less affected militarily and economically by Iranian attacks than most other Gulf states, and has pursued a diplomatic resolution.
A key cushion for Saudi Arabia has been its ability to continue exporting oil from its west coast on the Red Sea given the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. A wider conflict between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia could challenge that.
ICRC PLANE HELD
Moammar bin Mutahar Al-Eryan, the information minister in the internationally recognised government, said the Houthis were detaining an aircraft belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross at Sanaa airport and holding its pilot and co-pilot.
Hachem Osseiran, ICRC spokesperson for the Middle East, told Reuters all ICRC staff and the crew of the plane were safe and accounted for, declining to comment further.
In recent days an ICRC-mediated prisoner exchange deal between the Houthis and Yemen's internationally recognised government fell through, with both sides exchanging blame in a sign of growing tension.
Earlier on Monday, the government's defence minister had said it had exhausted diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran and the Houthis to stop what he described as Iranian aircraft violating Yemeni airspace.
He said government forces would respond to any hostile aircraft violating Yemen's airspace "by all available means", and held Iran responsible.
(Reporting by Tala Ramadan, Eman Abouhassira and Menna Alaa El Din, additional reporting by Reyam Mokhasef and Timour Azhari; Writing by Michael Georgy;Editing by Sharon Singleton, Aidan Lewis)
