Yemen's Military Warns Houthi Missiles Threaten Red Sea Air Routes

(MENAFN) Yemen's military said Saturday that weapons in the Houthis' arsenal now pose a direct danger to civilian aircraft and international flight corridors over the southern Red Sea.

Military spokesman Majid al-Nazili said the group had repurposed Iranian-supplied air-defense systems into "cruise" missiles, launching them from western Hodeidah province toward international air routes.

According to al-Nazili, the missiles can stay airborne for as long as 25 minutes and rely on heat-seeking guidance — a targeting method he said cannot reliably tell military aircraft apart from civilian ones.

He warned the weapons put commercial airliners at risk, along with UN and humanitarian flights operating across Yemen and the broader region, calling the development a significant escalation that reaches beyond Yemeni airspace to threaten international aviation more broadly.

Al-Nazili also tied the missile activity to recent statements from senior Iranian officials, who have threatened to disrupt regional aviation in response to sanctions imposed on Iranian airlines.

He called on international aviation authorities — including the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Air Transport Association — to respond to the threat.

Neither the Houthis nor Iran have commented on the Yemeni military's allegations.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Houthi movement seized control of the capital, Sanaa, along with several provinces, in 2014 — a takeover that led a Saudi-led Arab coalition to intervene militarily in 2015 on behalf of Yemen's internationally recognized government.

Fighting flared again in July, after the Houthis declared a maritime blockade targeting Riyadh. The group has since claimed territorial gains along the Red Sea coast and the Bab el-Mandab Strait, while also striking oil facilities inside Saudi Arabia.

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