Thirteen people died and more than 300 were hurt when a missile struck the passenger terminal at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Saturday, October 10, four days ago. Among the wounded was Ali, a pilgrim from Hyderabad travelling with his family on an Umrah journey. The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia confirmed his death on Sunday and said it was working with his family to arrange the return of his remains. Saudi state television broadcast footage of the strike: flashes of light, then travellers running for cover. Some wore the white robes of pilgrims.
Reuters called it the deadliest strike in Saudi Arabia in a decade. It wasn’t the last. Another attack on Sunday killed one person, and The National reported at least 20 people had died in assaults since the previous week on King Khalid International and Abha International Airport in Asir province. King Fahd International Airport in Dammam was also hit on Sunday evening. King Khalid has suspended operations until midnight on October 17.
Civilian Toll
The violence has spread beyond airports. On Tuesday, a ballistic missile hit an office tower in the Saudi Aramco headquarters complex in Dhahran, according to a company source quoted by Reuters. The top three floors took damage, and fire broke out in the building. Six sources had earlier reported loud booms near the complex. Aramco made no official comment. The coalition said fragments from a missile it intercepted fell in a residential area in Dhahran.
The Houthis had warned of precisely this. Spokesman Yahya Saree threatened a “harsh and painful” response to Saudi-led strikes on Sanaa, named the Dhahran headquarters and a Riyadh refinery as possible targets, and told Saudi oil workers to stay away from sites that could be hit.
The coalition said it struck the Yemen Petroleum Company’s Sabah central station, a fuel depot on Sanaa’s outskirts, in an operation meant to neutralize Houthi capabilities. Beforehand, it warned civilians to evacuate the site and nearby storage areas in al-Subaha. The area sits on a hill overlooking the capital and isn’t populated, though the public uses a nearby fuel station. Witnesses in Sanaa heard explosions. What the strikes hit wasn’t clear. Houthi-run Al-Masirah television reported strikes on oil facilities but offered no evidence.
Pressure on Taiz
On the ground, Yemeni government forces backed by the coalition clashed with Houthi fighters on the outskirts of Taiz, a strategic southwestern city. They repelled fresh attacks as warnings mounted that a tightening rebel siege was worsening conditions inside. A military spokesman said coalition airstrikes stopped the Houthis from sending reinforcements. Reuters reported that a government offensive begun a week earlier pushed the Houthis from the area closest to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The group remained nearby and had made gains around Taiz this month.
The current round of fighting began last month after the rebels seized key areas along the strait, a route for Gulf oil and other goods at the southern end of the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia resumed its campaign in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government to reverse those gains. Reuters said the strait has grown more important to Saudi and global energy supplies since the Iran war began, when Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz. That war started with the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28, seven months and 16 days ago. Reuters described the Yemen fighting as a spillover from it.
Diplomatic Options
Several airlines have cancelled or disrupted service to Saudi Arabia. Etihad cancelled Abu Dhabi-Riyadh flights until October 19, Flydubai cancelled Riyadh flights until October 14, and Emirates and Air Arabia services were affected.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, that Tehran was ready to help broker talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis toward a “political solution,” Iranian state media reported. He warned that insisting on a military approach would complicate matters. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty urged the Houthis to stop, telling Araghchi: “There is no justification for these attacks, and they cannot be accepted.” He also called for diplomacy to avert “further escalation and instability.”
Not everyone sees diplomacy as sufficient. Norman Roule, a former senior US intelligence official, told Arab News that Houthi attacks on civilian targets should be treated as terrorism. “The weakest form of response you see in the international community is when you have actors say they of course condemn the action, but they seek a diplomatic solution, and end the conversation there,” he said. Yet he also insisted: “This is a Yemen conflict to be resolved by Yemenis.” Roule warned that Houthi pressure from battlefield losses could prompt more strikes on sensitive Saudi sites. “There will be missiles or drones that get through,” he said.
Washington’s Hesitation
The Associated Press reported that Saudi Arabia is seeking more direct US military support. Washington has provided intelligence sharing, target identification and planning for the Saudi-led offensive but has held off on strikes. AP said US intervention could prompt the Houthis to try to halt shipping through Bab el-Mandeb, restricting oil flows out of the Persian Gulf. President Trump said Monday that the Houthis were “misbehaving very badly” but didn’t say whether the United States would respond. Reuters reported that Washington has so far rejected Saudi efforts to bring it into the war directly.
US Central Command chief Adm Brad Cooper described what he called the “largest air-defence umbrella in the world,” saying allies had intercepted “thousands of Iranian attack drones and missiles.” Dr Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said the security of Gulf states was “indivisible.”
Why This Matters: The Saturday airport strike killed pilgrims and travellers who had nothing to do with the fighting in Yemen. The Houthis’ threats against oil workers show how quickly civilians become leverage. In Taiz, a besieged city, conditions are reportedly worsening while the coalition and the Houthis trade blows. Iran has offered mediation, and Egypt has urged restraint, yet no talks have begun. Saudi cabinet statements promise only consequences. A conflict that began as spillover from the US-Iran war now threatens shipping through Bab el-Mandeb and global energy supplies. Without a political track, civilians in Yemen and Saudi Arabia will keep absorbing the cost of escalation that neither Riyadh, the Houthis nor their backers has shown a way to stop.