Photo: liton islam / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
A missile struck the passenger complex at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Saturday, October 10, wounding a large number of people and forcing Saudi authorities to halt all operations, in the third attack on the Saudi capital’s main airport in a week. A regional official said the missile hit the building that houses Terminals 3 and 4, which handle domestic flights.
Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Authority described the attack as “blatant” and said the number of injured and the extent of damage were still being assessed. A hospital source cited by international news agencies put the number of wounded in the dozens, and a medical source said doctors had been called in to deal with a “serious emergency situation”. An eyewitness in the domestic terminal said a boarding gate was hit and that people were injured in front of them.
Trump weighs US role
Speaking to reporters soon after he was told of the attack, US President Donald Trump said Washington was considering whether to join Saudi strikes against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
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.
Donald Trump, US President
Officials have said US help to the kingdom so far has included intelligence sharing, identifying targets and planning for the Saudi-led offensive. Qatar, Bahrain and Britain condemned Saturday’s strike, while the Saudi and Omani foreign ministers spoke by phone about finding diplomatic ways to ease tensions.
A week of attacks
The Houthis have claimed earlier attacks on the same airport this week, in which Saudi authorities said three Saudi citizens, including a pilot, were killed and at least one Saudia aircraft was damaged on the ground. Three more people died in Houthi attacks on two other Saudi airports on October 6 and 7. There was no immediate claim for Saturday’s strike; earlier in the day the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of bombing Sanaa International Airport.
The surge in attacks on Saudi airports, military sites and oil facilities followed a major offensive launched by the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis about a week ago. The rebels had seized key stretches of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, including the port of Mokha near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and an informal truce in place since 2022 began to collapse in July.
Flights disrupted, India affected
All flights to Riyadh were diverted or cancelled, and flight-tracking data showed well over 200 cancellations at the airport within 24 hours. Air India, FlyDubai, Lufthansa Group and Pakistan International Airlines had already suspended services to Saudi airports before Saturday’s attack, and the US, Britain, Germany, Australia and Canada told their citizens to stay away from the airport.
Europe’s aviation safety regulator has warned that missile and drone fire and interception attempts raise the risk of civil aircraft being misidentified. Saudi Arabia, which is reported to be short of missile interceptors, has asked France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt for air-defence help, according to regional officials. A Houthi statement on Saturday’s strike and a decision from Washington are the next things to watch.
