Houthi Missile Strikes Riyadh Airport Terminal, Wounding Dozens and Suspending Operations

A missile struck the complex housing Terminals 3 and 4 at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday afternoon, wounding dozens of people and prompting a full suspension of operations. Saudi civil aviation authorities confirmed the attack and said several people of different nationalities sustained injuries ranging from minor to serious. A hospital source told reporters that five people were in intensive care.

Witnesses described panic inside the terminal. One passenger at Gate 403 said he saw Gate 401 hit and people running. Another reported shattered glass and injuries to shoulders and arms. Ambulances converged on the airport. Flights were diverted or cancelled. Kuwait Airways suspended its services to Riyadh. Canada’s embassy advised citizens to avoid the airport.

The strike followed earlier Houthi attacks on the same facility. On Thursday, missiles killed three Saudi citizens, including Captain Hamoud Ali Alkalthami of Saudia Airlines, and damaged an aircraft on the ground. The Saudi-led coalition said it destroyed three Houthi missile launch platforms in response. Houthis claimed responsibility for the Thursday strikes and said they had targeted the airport with ballistic missiles.

Saturday’s attack came as Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces pressed an offensive against Houthi positions near Taiz and along the Red Sea coast around Bab al-Mandab. The coalition reported striking 136 Houthi military targets in recent days. The airport has now been hit multiple times in a single week, disrupting travel ahead of a major gathering of oil executives in the Saudi capital.

Houthi military spokespeople have framed the airport attacks as part of an effort to close Saudi airspace. Saudi authorities have treated the strikes as deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure. Flight-tracking data showed more than 225 cancellations at the airport over a 24-hour period surrounding the weekend incidents.

The escalation sits inside a wider conflict that has intensified since a UN-brokered truce collapsed earlier this year. The Yemen war has become a secondary front in the larger Iran-related confrontation that has affected energy markets and regional shipping. President Trump said the United States was considering joining Saudi strikes on Houthi targets.

No group immediately claimed the Saturday missile. A diplomatic source attributed it to the Houthis. Saudi officials have not released a final casualty count beyond confirming multiple injuries. Operations remained suspended pending damage assessment.

The repeated targeting of King Khalid International Airport marks a shift in the conflict’s geography. Previous Houthi attacks focused more heavily on border airports such as Abha, Jazan and Najran. Strikes on the capital’s main civilian hub raise the political and economic cost for Saudi Arabia and complicate civilian air travel across the region.

Airlines continued to monitor the situation through Saturday evening. Some carriers rerouted passengers via other Gulf hubs. The incident adds to a week in which Houthi missiles also damaged facilities in Riyadh beyond the airport, including debris from interceptions affecting a kindergarten and a medical complex.

As of late Saturday, the aviation authority had not announced a timeline for resuming normal operations. Recovery of the terminal and restoration of flight schedules will depend on the extent of structural damage and the assessment of remaining risks from further launches.