A fresh Houthi strike hit Riyadh’s international airport on Sunday, a day after an attack claimed by the Yemeni group killed at least a dozen people and forced authorities to suspend operations there.
Saturday’s attack, the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade, was a sharp escalation in the Yemen war, where Riyadh has long militarily supported the internationally recognised government against the Houthis.
The Iran-backed group on Sunday claimed multiple attacks over the last 24 hours, including on the airport, and threatened to keep targeting the kingdom’s transit hubs, calling them “a theatre of operations for our forces”.
Hours later, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the group reported that a projectile struck King Khalid International Airport, sparking a fire. Air defences also intercepted a missile nearby, it added.
AFP journalists and locals reported hearing the sound of multiple blasts in the Saudi capital on Sunday.
“The birds went into a frenzy after the sound. The whole house shook,” said one resident of the Al-Aarid neighbourhood in the north of the city.
The civil aviation authority said the attack caused an unspecified number of injuries, and that a damage assessment was under way.
It later reported another attack on Dammam airport in the east — which the Houthis also said they had targeted — a day after the Saudi coalition reported a projectile landing nearby.
– ‘Full-fledged war crime’ –
The Houthis have stepped up their attacks on the Riyadh airport — where three people were also killed on Thursday — as well as on Saudi oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.
Although Saudi Arabia has poured billions into its military, Houthi attacks continue to slip through.
“Saudi air defences have been able to intercept some Houthi missile and drone attacks, but Saudi Arabia is so large that it’s simply impossible for them to consistently defend themselves,” said Thomas Juneau, security analyst at Ottawa University.
The anti-Houthi coalition called Saturday’s attack a “full-fledged war crime” and vowed to “respond decisively”.
Houthi media reported two Saudi strikes in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled Sanaa governorate on Sunday.
Saturday’s attack drew condemnation from the United Nations and leaders around the world, including US President Donald Trump, who said he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country does not have diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, also denounced the “horrific terrorist attack”.
Four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese were killed, the civil aviation authority said, with 309 people wounded.
The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia also said one of its citizens died on Sunday after being wounded the day before.
– 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 confirmed the halt in operations “until further notice”, adding radar and communications equipment was damaged and runways needed to be assessed.
Witnesses to Saturday’s strike described chaos in the aftermath.
“People who were in Terminal 3 started running towards us,” a 32-year-old Riyadh resident told AFP.
“Some had lost a hand or an arm. People were running while carrying injured people, covered in blood.”
The attack prompted health officials to activate a rare mass call-up of doctors, a medical source said.
The US, Canadian, German and Spanish embassies in Saudi Arabia have warned their citizens to avoid Riyadh airport, while Australia urged its citizens on Sunday to stay indoors altogether and “shelter in place”.
– Fighting in Yemen –
Saturday’s airport strike, on the eve of Saudi Arabia’s high-profile convention and entertainment season, was the deadliest attack in the kingdom since a 2015 suicide bombing.
With the summer heat subsiding, October also usually marks the beginning of the high travel season for Umrah pilgrims, with millions of Muslims from across the world flocking to Mecca.
Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has supported Yemen’s government militarily since 2015, including by seeking to exert control over Yemeni airspace and the airport in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.
Ottawa University’s Juneau said the Houthis now “want to do to Saudi Arabia what Saudi Arabia does to them”.
On the ground 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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