UK sends RAF Typhoons to help defend Saudi Arabia as coalition says it destroyed a Houthi missile fired at Riyadh


A gray Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jet flying low over dark water

An RAF Typhoon FGR4 fighter in flight, photographed over the Baltic region in 2014. (Photo: Sqn Ldr Dylan Eklund/UK Ministry of Defence via Wikimedia Commons) [file photo]

Britain will fly RAF Typhoon fighter jets on defensive missions over Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday, hours after the Saudi-led coalition said it destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile fired at Riyadh.

In an operational update published on Tuesday, the ministry said the jets would fly "defensive counter air missions to support the protection of Saudi cities and critical national infrastructure against aerial attack." It stressed that "these aircraft will operate in a defensive role and will not conduct offensive strikes against the Houthis." Britain will also send an RAF A400M transport aircraft to move defense equipment inside the kingdom, together with military advisers to support Saudi staff officers, and it is extending the air-to-air refueling it already provides. According to the ministry, that refueling supports Saudi defensive air operations, "including to degrade Houthi military targets in Yemen that threaten the Saudi and Yemeni people." The BBC and the Guardian reported that the refueling mission has been extended by 90 days.

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said in the statement: "The continuing attacks from the Houthis on our ally Saudi Arabia are absolutely despicable. The targeting of the airport in Riyadh in particular shows the lengths the Houthis are going to escalate the situation in the region." He added, "That's why today I have approved further UK military support." The Guardian's defense and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, wrote that the operation is the most significant military mission signed off by Andy Burnham as prime minister, and that the number of jets was not stated. The paper noted that BAE Systems has supplied 72 Typhoons to Saudi Arabia.

The ministry said Britain "unequivocally" condemns Houthi attacks on civilian targets "like King Khalid International Airport." The BBC reported that one missile strike on the Riyadh airport on October 10 killed 13 people and injured 308, the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade, and that Saudi authorities said last week that 19 people had been killed in Houthi attacks on the kingdom's airports. Mereja reported on October 15 on a cruise missile the coalition said it intercepted over Medina, and on October 16 on Houthi missiles that hit Aden's Maashiq palace.

Early on Tuesday, the coalition spokesman, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, said Saudi forces had intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile that "the Houthi terrorist militia" launched toward Riyadh, in an Arabic statement shared by the official @KSA account and carried by Al Jazeera Arabic and Marib Press. Daily Sabah, citing AFP journalists in the capital, reported that two blasts shook the city. The Saudi civil defense had issued a warning through the National Early Warning Platform and lifted it minutes later, saying "the danger has passed," according to the same report. The account @MrKndel wrote in Arabic that no injuries had been announced so far.

The Houthis say their attacks are wider than Riyadh. Their military spokesman, Yahya Saree, claimed six operations inside Saudi Arabia in 48 hours using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones, according to Yemen Future, which describes itself as an independent news platform. It listed targets including Aramco facilities in Yanbu, the Shaybah oil field, King Khalid International Airport, Abha airport and the Khamis Mushait air base. A summary of the same statement posted by @MrKndel added a Saudi naval camp and a radar at Bir Askar. None of these claims has been independently verified, and Mereja found no coalition response to them.

The war inside Yemen is also growing more deadly. The BBC reported on Tuesday that more than 70 security personnel were killed in the Houthi missile strike on al-Alam camp in Shabwa province, a higher toll than the figure of at least 53 that Mereja reported on Monday. The BBC cited the health ministry in Houthi-held north-western Yemen as saying Saudi air and artillery strikes have killed at least 141 people since September 3, while the government's health ministry said at least 1,282 people had been killed across Yemen since August 6. In Taiz, the Yemeni army said fighting and airstrikes killed 129 Houthi fighters over two days, Daily Sabah reported, adding that the Houthis did not comment on the claim.

The violence is reaching the Saudi economy. Daily Sabah wrote that the attacks have forced the postponement of a major investment conference, and Al Jazeera carried a headline saying that Saudi Arabia "cancels 2026 'Davos in the Desert' amid Houthi attacks." In Cairo, Al Jazeera reported, Egypt's parliament delayed for a second day a vote on President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's request to authorize military support for Saudi Arabia, and state media said the new session would be held on October 26. Mereja reported on the first delay on October 18.

In Washington, the State Department on Monday released a transcript of an October 15 interview in which Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Breitbart News that the world is facing an energy crisis "because of what's happening in Hormuz, what's happening in the Red Sea." He also said: "By the way, with the Houthis now and Saudi Arabia, who is the number one sponsor of the Houthis? Iran."

In Britain, the step drew some warnings on X. @Altaylorshearer recalled posting on October 13, when an RAF Voyager tanker was sent, that "this is how mission creep starts," and called the Typhoon deployment "the next step." The Guardian reported that the intervention was partly justified by the effect of Middle East instability on energy prices and the cost of living.

Reporting from London, Al Jazeera's Camille Nedelec said the decision was partly driven by concern over rising energy prices. "What's happening in the Gulf has a direct impact on people's homes," she said, adding that the move "shows increasing engagement by the UK" in the region.

Sources

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