Explosions stop flights at Riyadh's airport; Houthis claim a missile strike

Explosions were heard in Riyadh on Thursday, including a large blast at King Khalid International Airport, where outgoing flights were paused.

A witness said fire and ambulance crews responded and smoke was visible. Passengers were told to leave their checked bags behind and get out of the airport.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed a ballistic missile had damaged the airport. They gave no evidence, and Saudi authorities had no immediate comment on the claim.

Major General Turki al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, said its forces destroyed two ballistic missiles fired toward Riyadh and one fired toward Khamis Mushait, near the Yemen border, without saying a missile had struck the airport.

On Wednesday, Saudi officials said attacks the Houthis claimed had killed three people, the first deaths since Saudi Arabia and allied Yemeni forces opened a major ground and air offensive over the weekend. A Sudanese national was killed at the Riyadh airport, and eight other people were hurt. At Abha airport, the officials said, a Moroccan resident and an Algerian resident were killed, and 28 people were hurt.

Flightradar24 said the Riyadh airport was "closed again." Flights there had been suspended for more than an hour after Wednesday's attack.

On Thursday morning, the flight tracker counted 58 delayed departures and 11 cancellations. The last landing it recorded was more than 80 minutes earlier, and the last takeoff more than 90 minutes earlier.

Early Thursday, the Houthis warned airlines "for the last time" about flying in Saudi airspace, which they called a theater for their military operations. They told people in Saudi Arabia to stay away from oil sites that "represent targets for our forces."

Oil was already higher

Oil was already up before those explosions were reported. At 3:21 a.m. Eastern time, Brent crude, the international benchmark, was at $103.88 a barrel, up 3.7% on the day. A witness account of the blasts was published at 7:24 a.m.

By 9:41 a.m., Brent was at $104.65, up $4.45, or 4.4%. U.S. crude was at $92.25, up 4.5%.

Most of that 4.4% was already in the price at 3:21 a.m. The rise from there to midmorning was the smaller part of the day.

The United States and Israel are in the eighth month of a war with Iran. Attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, the passage tankers use to leave the Gulf, have increased in October. Saul Kavonic, head of energy at MST Marquee, said Iranian attacks on ships are now the most frequent since that war began.

The Houthis are backed by Iran, and they are fighting Saudi Arabia and allied Yemeni forces. The ship attacks Kavonic described are Iran's, in the war with the United States and Israel.

Axios reported that the U.S. Defense Department had told its Middle East command to finish preparations for renewed major combat operations in Iran. The report said strikes could come before November's midterm elections, the vote for Congress.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said that report, and a storm nearing the United States, were keeping oil above $100 a barrel.

"We can't discount the possibility of a new round of strikes," he said.

In the United States, the National Hurricane Center said Hurricane Isaias should reach the northern Gulf Coast on Friday night. About 25% of current oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was already offline as of Wednesday, the Marine Minerals Administration said.

The Houthis claimed the airport on Thursday, not an oil site. Gulf crude exports had already recovered before this week. Kpler put the seven-day pace at 18.5 million barrels a day on October 1, against about 18 million before the war.

A closed airport and a warning about oil sites are not the same as oil that does not ship.