Yemen’s Houthis issued a new threat to Saudi Arabia’s airspace on Sunday after an attack on the kingdom’s international airport in Riyadh killed 12 people and wounded hundreds, forcing authorities to stop operations.
Saturday’s attack, the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade, was a sharp escalation in the Yemen war, where Riyadh backs the internationally recognised government against the Houthis, who captured swathes of Red Sea coastline in a lightning offensive last month.
While the Iran-backed Houthis stopped short of claiming the strike, they threatened new attacks on the kingdom’s airports, except for the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, warning passengers not to travel.
“The airports and airspace are exposed to targeting and constitute a theatre of operations for our forces,” military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on X.
The strike came in a week when the group intensified its attacks on the Saudi capital’s King Khalid International Airport, where three people were also killed on Thursday, as well as other key targets in the world’s top crude oil exporter.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen attributed Saturday’s attack to them, calling it a “full-fledged war crime”.
A diplomatic source also attributed the strike to a Houthi missile.
The coalition vowed to respond, and on Sunday Houthi media reported two Saudi strikes in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled Sanaa governorate.
The assault on Riyadh’s airport drew condemnation from the United Nations and world leaders including US President Donald Trump, who said he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis.
“We may. We’re going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision,” he told reporters.
Four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese were killed, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said.
It said some of the 309 wounded were in serious condition.
A Riyadh-based Western diplomat told AFP the official number of injured did not appear to give a full picture.
The number does not seem to include those with minor wounds, the diplomat said.
Operations suspended
Authorities suspended operations at the airport into Sunday, a senior aviation source said, with air traffic monitor Flightradar24 saying the closure was extended until 2100 GMT.
A second aviation source who helps oversee flights to Riyadh confirmed the halt in operations “until further notice”.
“Some systems have been damaged — the radar and communications equipment,” said the source, adding that runways also needed to be assessed.
One passenger told AFP they witnessed a strike in the airport’s domestic terminal.
“I was on gate 403,” the witness said. “I saw 401 hit, I saw injured in front of my eyes. Everyone was running.”
A French resident of Riyadh said their flight to Europe was cancelled and they would drive to the Qatari capital Doha to fly.
The US, Canadian, German and Spanish embassies in Saudi Arabia warned their citizens to avoid Riyadh airport.
A senior Western diplomat told AFP that several embassies were banning their staff from using the airport “over the next week”.
The Saudi-led coalition also announced on Saturday evening the fall of a projectile near Dammam airport in the kingdom’s east.
The US embassy in Saudi Arabia on Sunday said staff now require permission to use airports in Dammam and Jeddah, days after a similar order was issued for Riyadh.
Doctor call-up
The Riyadh attack prompted health officials to activate a rare mass call-up of doctors, a medical source said.
Schools in Riyadh switched to remote learning for the second time in a month, according to emails seen by AFP that were received by parents.
The European Union’s chief called the strike a “dangerous escalation”, while Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the “heinous attack” and Gulf neighbours the UAE and Qatar called it a violation of Saudi sovereignty.
Britain, Germany, Iraq and Jordan also denounced it.
It was the deadliest attack in the kingdom since a 2015 suicide bombing. It also came on the eve of Saudi Arabia’s high-profile convention and entertainment season.
Riyadh usually hosts a packed calendar of events, including its flagship investment conference drawing foreign leaders and business titans.
Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has supported Yemen’s government militarily since 2015.
In Yemen, Saudi-supported government forces were advancing in their counter-offensive against the Houthis around the Bab al-Mandab strait, a key shipping route, military sources said Saturday.
The Houthis claimed to have repelled them.
Claims by both sides have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation moving fast on the ground and access for journalists difficult.
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