Iran War Updates: Deadly Houthi Attacks Keep Saudi Airport Closed as Trump Considers US Strikes in Yemen

Houthi fighters have intensified their siege of the Yemeni city of Taiz, where fighting has killed more than 60 people in the past 24 hours, military sources from both camps told AFP on Monday.

The Houthis have blocked all exits from the city – a major urban center in southwest Yemen that, if it fell to Iranian proxy forces, would give the Houthis a strategic foothold from which to threaten the de facto Yemeni government capital, Aden, further south.

Fighting over the past day has killed at least 22 pro-government forces and 40 Houthi fighters, the sources said. Houthi sources told AFP that reinforcements were being sent to the area.

Health officials warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Taiz on Sunday, with medicines, medical equipment and fuel “on the verge of running out.”

Taiz lies inland from the Red Sea coast and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, where the Houthis captured swathes of territory in a rapid offensive last month.

CBS/AFP

The price of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, was trading above $105 a barrel early Monday, hitting a two-week high despite the president Trump’s deeply controversial plan has buy diesel in Russia.

Mr Trump said in a social media post on Friday that he had struck a deal to buy diesel in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a bid to curb soaring fuel prices ahead of the November 3 US midterm elections.

But the plan runs counter to U.S. efforts to reduce the flow of money Russia gets from its oil and gas sales that can be used to finance its activities. war against Ukraine. A bipartisan group of six US senators on Sunday called on the administration to “immediately reverse course” on the plan.

Early Monday, the price of Brent crude edged up about 1% on the day to just over $105 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude climbed a similar amount to just over $92.

CBS/AP

Airstrikes targeted two districts of Sanaa, Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, 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 injured 12 others in Sanaa.

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

The rebel press center said Saudi Arabia carried out the strikes, as the Houthis continued to fire missiles and drones at the Saudi capital’s main airport and other infrastructure.

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

Saudi authorities did not immediately confirm their latest strikes in Yemen, but the kingdom has been battling 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 presented by Iran last month and that the regime was continuing to communicate through mediators.

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

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

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

The US Embassy in Saudi Arabia on Monday urged US 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 US mission is aware of additional attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and a targeted attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam on October 11,” the embassy said in a statement.

“Please exercise extreme caution when using all major airports in Saudi Arabia,” the statement added.

The US military on Saturday neutralized a Panamanian-flagged commercial ship in the Gulf of Oman by firing on it with a fighter jet, the US military’s Central Command announced.

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

The ship had recently left an Iranian port. Iranian ports have been subject to an American blockade since the failure of the ceasefire between the two countries in July.

Four commercial ships have been neutralized by US forces and 135 ships have been turned away since the blockade took effect on July 14, CENTCOM said.

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

A projectile hit a passenger terminal at Riyadh International Airport 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 have claimed responsibility for these and other attacks.

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

The airport – hit four times in the past five days – has been closed since Saturday’s missile strike, which was the deadliest in a Gulf Arab country since the start of the Iran war. More than 300 other people were injured, some seriously.

A US citizen was among the victims of Saturday’s strike, the US embassy in Riyadh said.

CBS/AP

President Trump left open Saturday the possibility that the United States would join Saudi Arabia’s battle against the Iran-backed Houthis.

“It’s possible. We’ll think about it,” Mr. Trump said when asked about the possibility as he left the White House for a campaign rally in Tennessee. “We have just learned of the recent attack (against the airport). So we are going to make a decision, we are going very quickly.”

Mr. Trump was also asked whether the Houthi strike on Riyadh airport would change his previously announced decision not to launch any potential strikes against Iran before the midterms.

“Well, we’ll take a look,” he replied.

Several people were injured in a strike at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Saturday. The Houthis did not claim responsibility for the attack, but Saudi aviation authorities said the strike was part of “continued attacks targeting civil aviation facilities in the Kingdom.”