A third attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport in a week killed at least 12 people and injured 309 on Saturday, Saudi authorities said. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility, marking a major escalation in their campaign against the kingdom.
The Saudi civil aviation authority said the victims included four Saudi nationals and two people from Bangladesh. One person each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt was also killed. People briefed on the matter said hospitals were overwhelmed as casualties arrived by ambulance and helicopter, with some of the injured in critical condition.
The strike came without warning, and Saudi Arabia’s threat warning system did not issue an alert. Two earlier attacks on the airport this week killed four people and heavily damaged a Saudi commercial aircraft parked on the tarmac.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly condemned the attacks on Saudi Arabia on Saturday, noting that an American citizen was among the dead. “These reprehensible attacks demonstrate a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life. They must stop now,” Rubio said in a post on X.
Airport Shut Down, Flights Diverted
The Saudi civil aviation authority said all flights to Riyadh were diverted on Saturday and airport operations were temporarily suspended. The airport serves a city of around eight million people.
In a post on X after the attack, the head of the Houthi media office said the group had “shut down Riyadh international airport”. The rebels have urged airlines to avoid Saudi airspace, declaring it a military operations zone after the Saudi-backed Yemeni government launched an offensive against them on Monday.
Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed that all flights to Riyadh had been either cancelled or diverted. At one point, only a helicopter was seen hovering over the airport.
An eyewitness said they saw an explosion followed by several injured people lying on the ground inside the airport, and more than a dozen ambulances were seen heading towards the facility. A video verified by Reuters also showed ambulances at the airport. An injured traveller told Reuters they saw something flying across the sky outside the airport before part of the ceiling near a departure gate collapsed.
The US embassy in Riyadh said it was “aware of attacks” and “strongly recommends all US citizens avoid this airport and surrounding areas”.
Trump Weighs Possible US Involvement
US President Donald Trump said Washington could consider joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis, though no decision has been made. Asked by reporters outside the White House whether the United States planned to take part, Trump said, “We may. We’re going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”
The latest attacks have exposed vulnerabilities in Saudi Arabia’s air defences, as the kingdom conducts an air campaign against the Houthis in support of a ground offensive by Yemen’s internationally recognised government. Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government have reported hundreds of strikes on targets in Houthi-controlled territory. The Houthis have said the strikes killed civilians, including women and children. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Yemen Conflict Escalates After Ceasefire Unravels
Saudi Arabia entered Yemen’s civil war in 2015, leading an Arab coalition to drive the Houthis out of the capital, Sanaa. The rebels had seized the city the previous year, forcing government forces out.
The conflict reached a bloody stalemate, with fighting and famine killing hundreds of thousands of Yemenis. A 2022 deal between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis halted much of the fighting.
That truce began to unravel over the summer, culminating in a rapid Houthi advance that wrested control of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint on the Red Sea from Saudi-backed government forces. The Yemeni government launched an offensive this week to retake the territory and has made limited progress so far. Meanwhile, the Houthis have placed Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, under siege.
Riyadh Conferences to Proceed Despite Attacks
The strikes have disrupted air travel to the Saudi capital just days before Riyadh is due to host major energy and investment conferences. Attacks on Thursday and earlier in the week had already led several airlines to suspend or cancel services to the city.
Organisers of the upcoming conferences said on Saturday that the events would go ahead as planned, as they sought to reassure participants about security arrangements.