Houthi Strikes Hit Riyadh Airport Twice in Two Days, Killing 13 and Wounding Hundreds

A projectile struck a passenger terminal at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Sunday, 11 October 2026, killing one Pakistani resident and wounding 11 others, Saudi civil aviation authorities said. The strike came less than 24 hours after a missile hit the same complex, killing 13 people and injuring more than 300.

Saudi authorities identified the Saturday dead as four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese. India's embassy later confirmed one of its nationals died from injuries sustained that day, bringing the toll to 13. Some of the wounded remained in critical condition in Riyadh hospitals. An Egyptian flight attendant working for a Saudi carrier and a Syrian woman who had lived in the kingdom for years were among those named in local reports.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the Saturday attack and for strikes on Dammam airport and two Saudi Aramco facilities. Their military spokesperson Yahya Saree described the actions as responses in the ongoing conflict. Saudi-led coalition forces called the airport strikes a war crime and vowed a decisive response under international humanitarian law. Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki said the strikes had caused deaths and injuries among civilian passengers and airport staff.

Operations at the airport serving a city of roughly 8 million people were suspended after Saturday's strike. Authorities later extended the closure until Monday evening local time. Flights were diverted or cancelled. Riyadh schools shifted to remote learning through Thursday. Several foreign embassies issued travel advisories. Conferences scheduled in the capital continued under the ministry's guidance, though passenger movement was severely restricted.

The attacks marked the third on the airport in a week. Earlier strikes killed four people and damaged a commercial aircraft on the tarmac. The pattern has exposed gaps in Saudi air defences as the kingdom supports the internationally recognised Yemeni government against the Iran-aligned Houthis. Air defences intercepted at least one missile near the airport on Sunday, but the projectile that reached the terminal still caused casualties and fire.

US President Donald Trump, asked whether American forces would join Saudi strikes on Houthi targets, said his administration would review the situation and move quickly if it decided to act. Several countries issued travel warnings for Saudi Arabia. The United Nations and multiple governments condemned the civilian casualties. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country has no diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, also denounced the attack.

The escalation follows the unravelling of a previous ceasefire in Yemen. Houthi attacks on Saudi and Emirati infrastructure have intensified this year, while Saudi and coalition airstrikes have continued against Houthi-held areas, including reported hits in Sanaa over the weekend that killed one person and wounded others according to Houthi-run health authorities. The dual pressure has drawn the United States closer to decisions on direct involvement.

Passengers and staff described scenes of evacuation, with ambulances converging on the domestic terminals. One passenger told reporters the strike occurred near the domestic terminal complex. People gathered outside a nearby metro station after being ordered to leave the airport grounds. The facility remains a civilian target under the laws of armed conflict, a point Saudi officials have emphasised in their statements.

Saudi officials have not released a full damage assessment. The Houthis have not publicly detailed the specific munitions used beyond claiming the strikes. The repeated targeting of a major international airport raises immediate questions about civilian safety in the Gulf and the risk of wider involvement by outside powers. Saudi Arabia has few easy options for deterring further attacks without escalating the Yemen war further or drawing additional external actors into the fighting. The FAA has already advised US airlines to exercise caution on flights to the kingdom.

The sequence of strikes this week has shifted the operational reality for air travel across the Arabian Peninsula and forced a public reckoning with the limits of existing air-defence coverage around the capital.