At least twelve people were killed and more than three hundred injured when a missile hit King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday, in what reports describe as the deadliest strike on a Gulf Arab country since the start of the Iran war.
According to a statement from Saudi civil aviation authorities carried early Sunday, the dead included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, a Palestinian, an American, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian and a Sudanese national. Several of the wounded were reported to be in critical condition and are being treated at hospitals across the Saudi capital. The official statement did not name any group as responsible for the attack.
A regional official, speaking to news agencies on condition of anonymity, said the missile struck a complex housing Terminals 3 and 4, which serve domestic flights. The airport suspended operations, entrances were blocked, and large numbers of flights were diverted or cancelled. Flight-tracking site FlightAware recorded at least 291 flights to and from Riyadh cancelled within 24 hours, while several airlines suspended services to Saudi airports.
The incident was the latest in a string of attacks on the airport over the past week. Yemen’s Houthi rebels had already claimed strikes on the same facility earlier in the week that killed three Saudis, including a pilot, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday’s attack. The rebels have at times taken days to acknowledge such operations. Meanwhile, the Houthis on Saturday accused Saudi Arabia of striking Sanaa International Airport in Yemen’s capital.
The escalation has drawn an international reaction. United States President Donald Trump said he was weighing whether Washington should join Saudi strikes against the Houthis, replying “We may” when asked if a decision had been made. A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition described the strike as a cowardly terrorist attack.
The US, Canadian, British, German and Australian embassies have all warned their citizens to stay away from the airport, and the US mission in Saudi Arabia issued a security alert advising American nationals to avoid the area. The violence follows a major Saudi-led offensive against the Houthis launched in the past week, amid renewed fighting in Yemen that reignited in July after the collapse of a four-year UN-brokered truce.
