Houthis Claim Further Attacks as Saudi Airport Stays Closed After Deadly Strike

Yemen’s Houthis issued fresh warnings on Sunday against the use of Saudi airports and claimed further attacks after the missile strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport that killed 12 people on Saturday. The Saudi-led coalition said a second projectile hit a passenger terminal on Sunday, causing a fire and injuries, while the airport remained closed and schools in the capital moved online.

The Saturday attack was the third on the airport complex this week and the deadliest on Saudi territory since 2015. Civil aviation authorities listed the dead as four Saudis, two Bangladeshis and one each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan. More than 300 people were wounded. Earlier strikes the same week had killed four and damaged a commercial aircraft. The Houthis said they had shut down the airport and threatened more strikes across the kingdom, including on King Fahd Airport in Dammam and energy facilities in the east.

President Donald Trump said he would look at joining Saudi operations against the group. The coalition called the civilian-target strikes a war crime and promised a decisive response. Houthi media reported Saudi airstrikes on Sanaa. The group has framed its campaign as retaliation for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen and as support for Palestinians. The ceasefire that had limited fighting has unravelled in recent months.

Flight-tracking data showed hundreds of cancellations and diversions. Passengers described scenes of people running from the terminal after the impact. Medical teams activated a mass casualty protocol. The vulnerability of a major civilian airport to repeated missile strikes has raised questions about the effectiveness of Saudi air defences against the Houthi arsenal, which includes ballistic missiles and drones supplied or developed with Iranian assistance.

The escalation risks drawing the United States more directly into a conflict it has largely treated as a Saudi and regional problem. Oil markets are watching for any disruption to Saudi production or export facilities. For now the immediate effect is the continued closure of the main airport serving Riyadh and the displacement of air travel to other hubs while damage assessments continue.

Whether the second strike on Sunday produces additional confirmed fatalities, and whether Trump authorises US strikes, will determine how quickly the current round of attacks expands or is contained.