At least 12 people were killed and 309 injured in an attack late Saturday on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, as Iran-backed Houthis intensified their campaign against Saudi Arabia. The dead included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese, the General Authority of Civil Aviation said Sunday. Some injured people were in critical condition.
The attack hit a civilian airport serving a city of roughly 8 million people. Saudi Arabia’s threat warning system issued no alert, and the attack proved the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade. Hospitals filled with wounded people brought by ambulance and helicopter, people briefed on the matter told Reuters.
Civilian Airport Under Attack
An eyewitness said they saw an explosion, then multiple injured people on the ground inside the airport. More than a dozen ambulances rushed to the facility, and Reuters verified a video showing ambulances there. An injured traveller told Reuters they saw something fly across the sky before part of the ceiling near a departure gate collapsed.
Two earlier attacks on the airport that week killed four people and badly damaged a Saudi commercial plane parked on the tarmac. Saturday’s attack prompted the diversion of all flights from Riyadh and a temporary halt to airport operations, the Saudi civil aviation authority said. Flight-tracking site flightradar24 showed all flights to Riyadh had been diverted or cancelled; at one point, only a helicopter hovered over the airport. Kuwait Airways said it was cancelling flights because the airport had closed due to a “security situation.”
The Iran-backed Houthi group hasn’t claimed responsibility for the latest attack. It had warned aviation companies to avoid Saudi airspace, saying aircraft operating there were targets except over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Houthi attacks on Thursday and earlier in the week had already led a number of carriers to suspend or cancel services to the Saudi capital.
Fighting and Regional Response
The airport attack came as fighting intensified between Yemen’s internationally recognised government forces and the Houthis. Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili, spokesman for the government forces, said more than 1,900 operations in the previous 24 hours targeted weapons and ammunition depots, camps, military positions, reinforcements and other “military objectives deep within areas controlled” by the Houthis. The Saudi-led coalition called the airport attack a “war crime” and said it would respond firmly, Reuters reported.
The airport attacks disrupted travel shortly before Riyadh was due to host major energy and investment conferences, including the World Petroleum Conference. Organisers said before Saturday’s strikes that the conferences would proceed as planned. Earlier Saturday, the airport advised passengers to contact their airlines and check flight status before travelling, citing air-traffic disruptions without saying what caused them.
Jordan’s foreign ministry said two injured Jordanians had been discharged, while two others remained in treatment. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed citizens travelling to the kingdom to contact local embassies if the attack disrupted their itineraries. The U.S., United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada embassies in Riyadh issued social-media advisories to their citizens. The U.S. mission strongly recommended that U.S. citizens avoid the airport and surrounding areas.
Warnings and Condemnations
In a statement released Sunday, the U.S. Mission said U.S. government employees in the kingdom needed special authorisation to use King Khalid airport and airports in Jeddah and Dammam. It said employees must not travel within 20 miles (32km) of the Yemeni border because of safety risks, and required special authorisation for travel to Jazan, Asir and Najran provinces and the cities of Qatif, Yanbu and Taif. The UK and Irish embassies described “a serious incident” at the airport; Canada’s embassy advised people in Riyadh to avoid all travel there, citing “ongoing military activity.”
Asked whether Washington would join Saudi strikes on the Houthis, United States President Donald Trump said, “We may. We’re going to look at it.” He said he planned to speak with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and that the United States had communication with the Houthis. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said an American citizen had been killed and wrote: “These reprehensible attacks demonstrate a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life. They must stop now.”
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the attack “a direct threat to the security of the region.” Qatar’s former prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani said Iran was “our primary adversary” and urged Gulf Cooperation Council members to stand with Saudi Arabia and show unity. Japan’s embassy “strongly” condemned Houthi attacks on airports and other Saudi civilian facilities. Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the attacks as a “flagrant violation” of international law.
Saudi Arabia entered the Yemen war in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition seeking to force the Houthis out of Sanaa. The Houthis had stormed the capital the previous year, pushing out government forces. A Saudi deal with the Houthis in 2022 froze the conflict, but the ceasefire unravelled over the summer. The Houthis then advanced rapidly and seized the Red Sea chokepoint of Bab el-Mandeb from Saudi-backed government forces. The Saudi-backed Yemeni government began an offensive that week to retake the territory, while the Houthis besieged Taiz, the country’s third-largest city.