At least 12 people were killed and 309 were injured in the attack that took place yesterday, Saturday, at the airport in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, according to local authorities.
The victims include four Saudis, two people from Bangladesh, and one person each from the U.S., Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan, and Egypt, as announced by the Saudi Arabian General Authority of Civil Aviation.
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A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia later vowed to respond to the attack, which it attributed to Yemen’s Houthis, calling it a “war crime.”
The Houthis have not claimed responsibility for the attacks, however, the group was behind separate strikes on the airport on Thursday, which killed three people and damaged an aircraft.
Clashes have recently escalated between Yemeni government forces—backed by Saudi Arabia—and the Houthis, who control most of the country.
Saturday’s attack was the deadliest in the kingdom since May 2015. In addition to the strikes on Riyadh Airport, a missile also struck near King Fahd International Airport “King Fahd” International Airport in Dammam, in eastern Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.
The attacks occurred one day after authorities announced that three Saudis, including a pilot, had been killed in two attacks on the airport by the Houthis —who are backed by Iran—the previous day. Three other people were killed in Houthi attacks on two airports in Saudi Arabia on October 6 and 7.
In its statement on Saturday, the Saudi Arabian General Authority of Civil Aviation reported that some of the injured are in “critical condition.” It added that an assessment of the damage at the airport is underway.
An eyewitness, who said he was in the domestic terminal, told the news agency that he saw Gate 401 hit and that there were injured people right before his eyes. “Everyone was running,” he added.
More than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing to the airport, according to the Reuters news agency, which cited an eyewitness.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly condemned the recent attacks on Saudi Arabia, confirming that a U.S. citizen was killed during the strikes.
When asked by reporters whether the U.S. planned to join Saudi Arabia in strikes against the Houthis, President Donald Trump stated: “Maybe. We’ll look into it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We’re moving very quickly.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, said he was “deeply shocked” by the attacks, which he described as a “violation of international law” that “must stop immediately.”
Egypt, Palestine, and Qatar also condemned the attacks. Western embassies in Saudi Arabia warned their citizens to stay away from the Riyadh airport. The British Foreign Office urged British nationals to avoid the area “until the airport’s security is ensured.”
Several Gulf airlines announced that they had canceled their flights to and from the airport, with Kuwait Airways citing the “security situation” there. All flights to Riyadh were either rerouted or canceled, according to data from the flight-tracking service Flightradar.
The Houthis say they are targeting Saudi Arabia because of the support it provides to government forces in Yemen’s civil war. The conflict escalated after the Houthis seized strategically important sections of the Red Sea coast in a lightning-fast offensive. These included the port of Mocha, located in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is the narrowest point of the Red Sea and a critical passage for global shipping.
Pro-government forces in Yemen have since stated that they have “secured control” of the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.
The Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015, when Arab countries joined forces to prevent the Houthis from taking over Yemen and overthrowing the country’s internationally recognized government. A temporary ceasefire was reached in 2022, following years of airstrikes and ground battles that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. However, the informal ceasefire began to unravel in July.
The Houthis announced a “naval blockade” against Saudi Arabia and launched attacks with missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) against Saudi airports, oil facilities, and tankers in the Red Sea. They stated that they were retaliating for what they described as a years-long blockade by Saudi Arabia, as well as for an airstrike on the airport in Sanaa —the capital of Yemen—which is controlled by the Houthis.
Source: BBC
