admin
Deadly Houthi Attacks Keep Saudi Airport Closed as Trump Considers U.S. Strikes in Yemen
By Duarte Dias, Frank Andrews
What to know about the Iran war today:
- At least 20 people, including a U.S. national, have been killed in a week of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia’s main airport, pushing oil prices back up and prompting President Trump to consider joining the Saudi-led battle against the Houthis in Yemen as it becomes the epicenter of the Middle East war.
- The price of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, climbed back to a two-week high over $105 a barrel Monday after President Trump said Saturday that he was considering whether to join Saudi Arabia’s offensive against the Houthis in Yemen.
- Fighting also continues near the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military announced Sunday that it had disabled a cargo vessel after the crew “ignored warnings and attempted to run the ongoing naval blockade” of Iran’s ports and vessels.
Saudis investigate why deadly strike on Riyadh airport wasn’t intercepted
Saudi Arabia has launched an investigation to determine how its air defenses failed to intercept a barrage of missiles and drones fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, including an attack on Riyadh airport that killed at least 13 people and wounded over 300, two regional officials said Monday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said the initial probe showed that Yemen’s Houthis first fired multiple drones to pave the way for a mix of cruise and ballistic missiles to reach Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.
The Houthis possess ballistic missiles and advanced systems fitted with warheads that can change direction during flight and pose a challenge to Patriot interceptors and other defense systems used by the Saudis.
One of the officials said the investigation also aims to find out why air defense systems did not provide earlier warning of the attack in which the Houthi missiles and drones flew over 620 miles to reach Riyadh.
Delta delays planned flights from Atlanta to Riyadh amid attacks on airports
Delta Air Lines said Monday it is delaying plans for nonstop flights from Atlanta to Riyadh amid escalating attacks between Yemen’s Houthi militants and Saudi Arabia.
“The safety and security of our customers and employees always come first and continue to guide our operational decisions,” the company said in a statement. “We remain in close contact with relevant government and aviation partners, including Saudia and Riyadh Air, as we monitor the situation.”
Delta announced last year its plans to operate nonstop flights to Riyadh three times a week on its Airbus A350-900 aircraft in October 2026. It said at the time that the new destination would help strengthen business and travel ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
The company said Monday the launch of Atlanta-Riyadh flights will take place in March 2027.
Iran’s foreign ministry says U.K.’s accusations are unfounded
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday denied the U.K.’s allegations that Tehran was involved in last month’s security incident at a British base used by American bombers.
In a statement posted to social media, the foreign ministry condemned what it said were “unfounded accusations by the United Kingdom against Iran.”
U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said earlier Monday the security incident at RAF Fairford — which led to the arrests of seven men who were later released on bail — was “highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran” and “almost certainly” by the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In its response, Tehran said by using terms like “highly likely” and “almost” certain, the U.K. is “hiding behind vague language without presenting concrete evidence or proof.”
NATO countries issue joint statement on Iran and RAF Fairford security incident
Foreign ministers of NATO member countries on Monday issued a joint statement condemning “Iran’s use of violent attacks, including the acts of lethal plotting, arson, sabotage, cyber-attacks, and other hybrid activities against us and our partners.”
The statement said the countries recognize the U.K.’s assertion that last month’s security incident at RAF Fairford, a U.S.-run air base in Britain, was likely coordinated by Iran.
“Any attempt by Iran to threaten, silence, intimidate, harass, harm, or coerce people on our territories through proxies or any other means is unacceptable,” the joint statement said. “ Anyone who conducts hostile activities on behalf of Iran, or any other state, should know that we will take action to identify, investigate, disrupt, and prosecute these acts.”
In a separate statement, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he welcomes the statement issued by allies and partners, echoing their denouncement of “Iran’s involvement in violence and threats on Allied territory.”
“NATO will continue to do its part to safeguard the security of our one billion people across the Alliance,” Rutte said.
Houthis confirm they targeted Riyadh’s airport again with ballistic missile
CBS/AFP
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis claimed an attack targeting Riyadh’s international airport on Monday, after a Saudi-led coalition said it had shot down a missile over the capital.
“Our armed forces were able to target (King) Khalid International Airport in the Saudi enemy’s capital Riyadh this evening with a ballistic missile and the hit was precise,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said. He said the group also targeted the Khamis Mushait base in the kingdom’s south with a drone.
Saree also warned against “the consequences of operating flights toward Saudi airports, as they are not safe, with the exception of the airports and airspace of the sacred areas in Mecca al-Mukarramah and Medina al-Munawwarah.”
It’s unclear whether there were any injuries.
Multiple blasts heard in Riyadh, as residents warned of aerial threat
Several powerful explosions rattled the Saudi capital Riyadh on Monday night, just moments after a text message sent to residents’ mobile phones warned of an aerial threat.
“The area is under a hostile aerial threat. Please remain calm, stay indoors or in a safe place away from windows and doors,” read the message.
Around the same time, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis said its forces intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Iran-backed group at the capital.
“Interception and destruction of a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia towards Riyadh,” Major General Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for the coalition, wrote in a post on X.
U.K. foreign minister announces sanctions against 2 Iranian nationals
U.K. Foreign Minister Ed Miliband announced sanctions against two Iranian nationals on Monday, “for their role in facilitating or engaging in hostile activity on behalf of the Iranian regime, with the clear intent of threatening, planning or conducting attacks overseas,” he said in a statement.
“We will not tolerate threats on British soil,” said Miliband, who earlier had released a joint statement alongside his counterparts in the U.S., Australia, Canada and 23 other countries, which condemned hostile activities by Iran on foreign soil.
Their statements followed a security incident at the RAF Fairford air base in southern England, which U.K. government leaders and others have attributed to Iran. Iran denied its involvement Monday in comments released by state media.
Americans detained for photographing attacks in Saudi Arabia, U.S. embassy says
The U.S. embassy in Riyadh said on Monday that American citizens had been detained for filming recent events in Saudi Arabia, which has suffered a string of deadly attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.
The embassy said “American citizens have been detained for taking photos of recent events,” without specifying how many were arrested or whether they had been released. It noted that Saudi authorities have warned that “filming, publishing, or sharing information related to counter missiles and drones and their impact sites exposes you to legal liability.”
Several foreign residents in Riyadh have told AFP that acquaintances were detained for filming recent events and sharing the footage on social media.
Iran denies involvement in U.K. air base incident, state media reports
CBS/AFP
Iran on Monday denied any involvement in a security incident at England’s RAF Fairford air base, which the U.S. previously used to deploy long-range bombers during the war.
“The Iranian ambassador in London, Ali Moussavi, has again categorically rejected the accusations concerning Tehran’s role in the incident at the Fairford military base,” the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported, adding that he “called on the British government to present evidence supporting its allegations if it possesses any.”
That statement followed earlier remarks from British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who said the incident was “almost certainly directed” by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Iran claims to have struck 3 supertankers in the Strait of Hormuz in the last 2 days
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed Monday to have struck three supertankers in the Strait of Hormuz over the last two days.
The IRGC Navy said in its most recent attack on a ship, Monday, “a third non-compliant super-tanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz and caught fire.”
It said the tanker had switched off the system that broadcasts a vessel’s location in an effort to evade Iranian restrictions on navigating the strait without permission and “disregarded warnings from the IRGC Navy.”
The statement warned that “any cooperation by commercial vessels and oil tankers with the invading, plundering American terrorist and smuggling army in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf region will be met with a decisive response from us.”
President Trump and his senior aides have insisted for weeks that a southern route through the strait, skirting close to Oman’s coast, is safe and available, and the U.S. military has escorted an increasing number of ships along that route in recent weeks.
Iran rejects that route and demands that all vessels use a northern passage close to its own coastline, seeking permission from its military.
The U.K. navy’s Maritime Trade Operations center, which monitors incidents in the region, had not reported any attacks on vessels Monday, but it noted at least two projectiles hitting vessels Sunday.
U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada and others condemn Iranian attacks, including “hybrid activities,” after air base incident
The foreign ministers of the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada and 23 other countries, many in Europe, have released a joint statement condemning hostile activities by Iran on foreign soil.
The statement came on the heels of British Prime Minister Andy Burnham saying a recent security incident at England’s RAF Fairford air base, which was until recently home to U.S. long-range bombers, was “almost certainly directed” by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
The countries said Monday that they “condemn in the strongest terms Iran’s use of violent attacks, including the acts of lethal plotting, arson, sabotage, cyber-attacks, and other hybrid activities against us and our partners.”
Linking the RAF Fairford incident to other recent attacks in Europe “targeting Jewish communities, Iranian journalists, and U.S. interests,” the countries said: “Any attempt by Iran to threaten, silence, intimidate, harass, harm, or coerce people on our territories through proxies or any other means is unacceptable.”
“Anyone who conducts hostile activities on behalf of Iran, or any other state, should know that we will take action to identify, investigate, disrupt, and prosecute these acts.”
U.K. prime minister says RAF Fairford air base plot “highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran”
The security incident at a British base used by American bombers to strike Iran during the ongoing war was “highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran” by the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday.
British police have arrested and then released on bail seven men in connection with the alleged plot. The decision to free the men, whom British police say remain under investigation and monitoring, drew criticism from President Trump, who said in September the incident “might be” linked to Iran.
“I can confirm our assessment that it is highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran, almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard,” Burnham told lawmakers in the U.K. Parliament on Monday.
“We will not tolerate these threats on our soil,” he added. “We will crack down on Iran’s use of criminal networks using our full range of powers to target them and their funding streams.”
Burnham said new sanctions against Iran would be announced.
Saudi Arabia vows response after deadly Houthi attacks on airports
CBS/AFP
Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Monday that the kingdom had been tested, but would mount an “equally serious” response to a string of deadly attacks on Riyadh’s international airport by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Lethal airport strikes have rocked the world’s top oil exporter since last week, which is pursuing an expensive economic reform drive aimed at attracting foreign investment.
Yemen’s decade-old civil war, in which a Saudi-led military coalition supports the government against the Houthis, has reignited months into the U.S.-Iran conflict that has roiled energy markets and plunged the Middle East into crisis.
“Energy security can’t be taken for granted,” Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told an energy conference in Riyadh. “The events of recent weeks are serious, our response must be equally serious.”
Operations remained suspended at the sprawling King Khalid International Airport on Riyadh’s outskirts Monday after the weekend’s deadly Houthi strikes.
CCTV video of the deadliest strike, which killed 13 people on Saturday, released by Saudi authorities showed Muslim pilgrims in religious attire waiting in departure lounges before a sudden flash tore through the building and brought down flaming debris.
Saudi energy minister says petroleum summit shows kingdom still the “energy security capital,” despite Houthi attacks
Saudi Arabia will continue implementing its economic goals and investing in energy infrastructure, industrial capacity and international partnerships despite the challenges presented by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said Monday.
Speaking at the World Petroleum Congress in Riyadh, the minister said Saudi Arabia had overcome major challenges throughout its history and would continue to do so, insisting that “fear has no place in the Saudi dictionary.”
He said Riyadh’s hosting of the international event reflected its position as an “energy security capital,” adding that the participation of senior officials and experts from around the world showed international confidence in the kingdom and its ability to ensure the safety of visitors.
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman chairs his delegations during the 17th Ministerial Meeting of the International Energy Forum (IEF), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 11, 2026.
He spoke as the Saudi capital’s main international airport remained shut down after a week of strikes by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen that killed 20 people.
The minister acknowledged that risks to the global energy system had not disappeared and he said that made international dialogue and cooperation essential to protecting supplies and stabilizing markets.
Bin Salman cited the East-West Crude Oil Pipeline as an example of Saudi long-term strategic planning, saying it provided an alternative route to transport oil amid ongoing impediments in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, and that it had helped the kingdom supply global markets during the exceptional circumstances of the war.
He credited state energy giant Saudi Aramco’s expertise with helping restore operations quickly when disruptions do occur — which they have on multiple occasions during the U.S.-Iran war. Iran’s proxy groups across the Mideast have targeted the East-West pipeline, along with other infrastructure, repeatedly, taking the pipeline out of service for weeks.
Iran arrests lawyer behind death row marriage of protester, say rights groups
BY: CBS/AFP
Iranian authorities have arrested a lawyer who helped organize and publicize a prison marriage between a young man who was executed the following day over the 2026 anti-government protests and his fiancee, who was also in jail, rights groups said Monday.
Alireza Sepahi, 25, and his partner Mahshad Kashani, 22, were married in a ceremony conducted over the telephone by their lawyer and attended by their fathers on the eve of Sepahi’s execution on Oct. 5.
Both were arrested and were being held in separate prisons in the central city of Isfahan over their participation in the nationwide January protests that shook the Islamic republic.
Lawyer Amirsalar Davoudi was arrested Sunday by plainclothes forces while attending a hearing at the Isfahan Revolutionary Court to defend Kashani, who is serving a five-year prison term, the Dadban Iranian legal affairs monitor said, according to French news agency AFP.
“Criminal prosecutions against lawyers – particularly those handling political, security, and human rights cases – have in recent years become an ongoing pattern,” it said.
The arrest was also confirmed by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which said Davoudi’s whereabouts were unclear.
Rights groups say Iran has in recent months executed 34 people in connection with the January protests in a bid to intimidate society and prevent further demonstrations. In 2025, the country doubled its use of executions, according to Amnesty International.
Iran says U.S. and Israel responsible for Strait of Hormuz disruption
Iranian Foreign Minister Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei blamed the U.S. and Israel on Monday for the ongoing disruption to commercial shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
During his weekly press briefing, Baghaei noted that before the U.S. and Israel launched joint airstrikes on Iran at the end of February, the Strait of Hormuz was open.
“Everything we are witnessing in the region” was a result of the “actions of the United States and the Israeli regime,” including the economic consequences of the disruption to shipping through the strait, Baghaei said.
“If the governments that are concerned about this situation are genuinely serious about their concerns, they should address the party responsible for creating this situation and seize every opportunity to compel the United States to stop its acts of aggression,” he said.
Tehran and Washington both claim to have control over the strait, and they are imposing competing blockades in the Persian Gulf and the strait.
President Trump has offered various justifications for launching the war on Iran, but has recently stressed it as a necessary means of ensuring the regime in Tehran cannot build a nuclear weapon.
Houthis step up battle to seize major city of Taiz from Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces
CBS/AFP
Houthi fighters have ramped up 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 sides told the French news agency AFP on Monday.
The Houthis have blocked all exits from the city – a major urban center in Yemen’s southwest that, if it falls to the Iranian proxy force, would give the Houthis a strategic foothold from which to threaten the de facto Yemeni government capital of Aden, further to the south.
The fighting over the last day alone has killed at least 22 pro-government forces and 40 Houthi fighters, the sources said. The Houthi sources told AFP reinforcements were being sent to the area.
On Sunday, health officials warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Taiz, with medicine, medical equipment and fuel “on the verge of running out.”
Taiz is 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.
Brent crude oil price creeps back over $105 a barrel despite Trump’s Russian diesel announcement
CBS/AP
The price of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, was trading over $105 a barrel early Monday, hitting a two-week high despite President Trump’s deeply controversial plan to purchase diesel from Russia.
Mr. Trump said in a social media post on Friday that he’d struck a deal to buy diesel during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, aiming to tamp down a spike in fuel prices ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections.
But the plan runs counter to U.S. efforts to cut the flow of money Russia gets from oil and gas sales that can be used to pay for its war against Ukraine. A bipartisan group of six U.S. senators called Sunday for 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 per barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude climbed by a similar amount to just over $92.
Iran-backed Houthis blame Saudi Arabia for new strikes
CBS/AP
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 one man 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 Saturday; 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.
Iran says it’s still reviewing U.S. response to 7-day ceasefire proposal and indirect talks continue
Iran’s Foreign Minister spokesperson Esmail Baghaei 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,” Baghaei 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.
U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia urges “extreme caution” in country’s airports
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.
U.S. fighter jet strikes, disables commercial vessel in Gulf of Oman, Pentagon says
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.
Saudi airport passenger terminal is struck again, a day after 13 were killed
CBS/AP
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.
U.S. “may” join Saudi strikes on Houthis, Trump says
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.”
Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-us-trump-saudi-arabia-houthi/
