Houthi strikes on Riyadh airport kill more than a dozen as Saudi forces vow response
A second projectile hit a passenger terminal at King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, killing one Pakistani resident and injuring 11, a day after a strike that left at least 12 dead and more than 300 wounded. Saudi authorities have extended the airport’s closure.
Riyadh2 min read
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RIYADH, 12 October 2026 — Yemen’s Houthi forces struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh again on Sunday, killing one Pakistani resident and wounding 11 others. The attack came one day after a Saturday strike on the same terminal that Saudi authorities said killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 300, the deadliest incident on Saudi soil in more than a decade.
Saturday’s victims included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, and one person each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan, according to the General Authority of Civil Aviation. An Indian national injured in that attack later died, raising the toll. The Sunday projectile caused a fire in Terminal 4. Air defences intercepted a second missile nearby. Saudi authorities extended the suspension of operations at the airport, which serves a city of roughly eight million, into Monday evening.
The Saudi-led coalition described the Saturday attack as a “full-fledged war crime” and said it would respond “decisively” under customary international humanitarian law. Major-General Turki al-Maliki, the coalition spokesman, repeated the pledge after the Sunday strike. Houthi media reported that Saudi aircraft hit Sana’a International Airport and other sites around the Yemeni capital in response. The Houthi-run health ministry has claimed dozens of casualties from recent coalition strikes.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the Saturday attack on civilian infrastructure and called for an immediate end to such strikes. The United States has warned its citizens to avoid the Riyadh airport and surrounding areas. President Donald Trump said over the weekend that Washington was considering whether to join Saudi strikes against the Houthis. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has no formal ties with Riyadh, also denounced the attacks.
The sequence marks a sharp rise in cross-border fire since a earlier ceasefire arrangement in Yemen unravelled. Previous Houthi attacks on the airport this week killed additional people, including a Saudia pilot, and damaged aircraft on the ground. Security-camera footage released by Saudi media showed passengers at a departure gate when part of the ceiling collapsed after Saturday’s blast. Dust and debris filled the hall as people ran for cover.
Commercial flights remain diverted. Oil-market participants noted that several executives scheduled for events in Riyadh have been dropped from programmes. The airport’s closure removes a major transit node for the region at a moment when shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz already face separate risks linked to the wider Iran-related conflict.
For Saudi authorities the incidents expose gaps in air-defence coverage around the capital’s main civilian gateway. For the Houthis the attacks demonstrate reach into the kingdom’s largest city. Neither side has published a detailed account of the munitions used or the precise launch sites. The next concrete development will be whether Riyadh resumes normal operations at King Khalid or whether further strikes keep the terminal closed and push the coalition toward wider retaliatory action.
