At least 12 people have been killed and 309 injured in an attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, prompting the suspension of operations and widespread flight cancellations.
The Saudi civil aviation authority confirmed that the casualties included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis and one person each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt. Some of the injured were in critical condition, while authorities assessed the damage to the airport.
A Saudi-led military coalition blamed Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the strike and vowed to respond, describing the attack as a “full-fledged war crime”.
Coalition spokesman Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki said the attack on a passenger terminal had killed and injured civilian passengers and airport staff.
An eyewitness who said they were inside the domestic terminal told a news agency that gate 401 had been hit, adding that they had seen “injured [people] in front of my eyes”.
“Everyone was running,” the witness said.
More than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing to the airport, according to Reuters. A separate projectile also fell near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, eastern Saudi Arabia, the coalition said.
The Houthis have not commented on Saturday’s attack but previously claimed responsibility for separate strikes on the Riyadh airport on Thursday, which killed three people and damaged a plane. Another three people were killed in attacks on two other Saudi airports on October 6 and 7.
Saturday’s incident was the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia since May 2015.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the recent attacks on Saudi Arabia and confirmed that an American citizen had been killed in the strikes.
Asked whether the United States would join Saudi Arabia in striking the Houthis, President Donald Trump said: “We may. We're going to look at it.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply shocked” by the attacks, describing them as a “violation of international law” that “must cease immediately”.
Egypt, Palestine and Qatar also condemned the attacks, while Western embassies urged their citizens to avoid the Riyadh airport. Several Gulf airlines cancelled flights to and from the airport, with all Riyadh-bound flights either diverted or cancelled, according to flight-tracking data.
The attacks come amid renewed fighting between Yemen’s internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government forces and the Iran-backed Houthis, who control much of the country.
The Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 to prevent the Houthis from taking over Yemen. A ceasefire brokered in 2022 eased years of fighting that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and a major humanitarian crisis, but the informal truce began to unravel in July.
The Houthis have since announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and launched missile and drone attacks on airports, oil facilities and tankers, citing what they describe as a prolonged Saudi blockade and an air strike on Sanaa airport.