At Least 12 Killed in Fresh Houthi Attack on Saudi Airport

At least 12 people have been killed and hundreds more injured after strikes hit an airport in the Saudi capital, officials said.

King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh came under attack again yesterday, prompting an emergency evacuation at the major travel hub. Two earlier attacks this week had already claimed four lives.

Witnesses reported seeing several injured people on the ground as more than a dozen ambulances and emergency vehicles rushed to the airport. Residents also described hearing two powerful explosions.

Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said those killed included four Saudi nationals, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese national.

A further 309 people were injured, some of them seriously, the authority said.

All flights bound for Riyadh were either diverted or cancelled. Aviation tracking service Flightradar showed only a helicopter hovering over the airport at one point.

The British embassy urged its citizens to stay away from the airport, describing the situation as a “serious incident”. The US embassy also advised Americans to avoid the area.

The Houthis have not commented on today’s attack, although the group has claimed responsibility for strikes earlier this week.

The airport had already been targeted twice this week, killing four people, injuring others and causing significant damage to an aircraft.

US President Donald Trump told reporters he was considering whether Washington should join Saudi Arabia’s strikes against the Houthis after the latest attacks.

“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,” he said.

On Thursday, a missile strike at the airport set fire to a commercial aircraft operated by Saudi state carrier Saudia Airlines.

The aircraft had been parked at the terminal, about 20 miles north of the capital, and was believed to have been empty at the time.

Three Saudi citizens were killed. Saudia Airlines confirmed that one of them was Captain Hamoud Ali Alkalthami.

A separate strike on the airport on Wednesday killed a Sudanese national.

In other attacks, Saudi officials said debris from an intercepted missile struck a kindergarten and a medical complex in Riyadh.

The strikes came after Yemen’s civil war reignited. The conflict began in 2014, when the militant group sought to overthrow the country’s government, which is supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.

The Houthi rebels say they are attacking Saudi Arabia for supporting Yemen’s government, while the Saudis maintain they are only helping the UN-recognised government retake territory.  

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The Saudis have sought support from the US and other allies as its airports, military facilities and oil infrastructure have come under attack. 

Officials said US assistance has included intelligence sharing, target identification and planning for the latest offensive.

On Friday, as he left the White House, US President Donald Trump was asked about the attacks on the Riyadh airport and told reporters, ‘It’s not good’ and ‘I’m not happy.’ 

But there has been no immediate sign of US military support to respond to the attacks.

The Saudi and Omani foreign ministers spoke by phone about the importance of ‘supporting diplomatic solutions to de-escalate tensions’ in the region, the kingdom said Saturday. 

Oman, which lies across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, has played a mediator role at times in the region.

As regional chaos deepens, the kingdom has also requested urgent logistical and defensive support from allies such as Turkey and Pakistan to reverse Houthi gains near the strategic Red Sea entrance.

Media reports indicate Syria is even weighing military aid to assist the Saudis, though Syrian presidential advisers have since denied any plans to deploy troops.

The attacks have prompted a number of carriers to suspend or cancel services to the Saudi capital, shortly before Riyadh is due to host major energy and investment conferences.

Organisers of those conferences said on Saturday they would go ahead as planned, and they sought to reassure attendees of their security.

Yemen’s long-running civil war, which paused with a ceasefire in 2022, has erupted again in recent weeks with the Houthis seizing stretches of the Red Sea coast last month, including along the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Their threats to shipping and attacks on Saudi cities and infrastructure have drawn the kingdom back in.

This week, Saudi-backed forces launched a counterattack, taking back some areas around the strait.

However, in a war with several front lines, the Houthis have made gains of their own, surrounding Yemen’s third-largest city, Taiz, by taking territory along its main mountain road to Aden.

The fighting, which pits the Houthis against a coalition of Saudi-backed forces under the internationally recognised government, has led to a humanitarian crisis in the poorest Arab state, displacing 200,000 people since the conflict resumed.

One US and one Syrian defence official said Syria was carefully considering options for military support, including defensive aid to protect Saudi Arabia from attacks, or an offensive deployment to help take the fight to the Houthis.

In response to a request for comment to the Syrian foreign ministry, a diplomat said Syria stood firmly with Saudi Arabia but that its focus was on domestic priorities such as recovery from its own civil war.

Nato-member Turkey said on Wednesday it was sending mainly defensive and technical support to the kingdom to help in the fight against the Houthis. A Turkish official said this was expected to take the form of military equipment, intelligence sharing and weapons systems.