Second Houthi Strike Hits Riyadh Airport Terminal a Day After 12 Killed

A projectile struck a passenger terminal at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, 11 October 2026, one day after a missile attack on the same complex killed 12 people and wounded 309 others. The Saudi-led coalition said the latest strike caused a fire in Terminal 4 and injuries, though it released no casualty figures for Sunday’s incident.

Saturday’s attack was the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade. Saudi civil aviation authorities said the dead included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese. Among them was Azza Ramzy, a 28-year-old Egyptian flight attendant for the Saudi carrier Flynas. Some of the wounded were in critical condition. The missile hit a complex housing domestic terminals 3 and 4.

The airport remained closed on Sunday. Authorities cancelled or diverted hundreds of flights and ordered Riyadh schools to switch to online learning. The Houthis claimed responsibility for a series of strikes on the airport since Wednesday and issued warnings to airlines and passengers against using Saudi airports. They also claimed attacks on King Fahd Airport in Dammam and on oil and gas facilities in the kingdom’s east.

US President Donald Trump said he was considering joining Saudi operations against the Houthis. The coalition, which has conducted airstrikes in Yemen, described Saturday’s strike as a war crime and vowed a decisive response. Houthi media said Saudi airstrikes hit Sanaa on Sunday. The Houthi-run health ministry reported 91 Yemenis killed and 168 injured by coalition strikes over five weeks.

The escalation follows the unravelling of a ceasefire in Yemen. Earlier attacks this week on the airport killed four people and damaged a commercial aircraft. The strikes have highlighted gaps in Saudi air defences as the kingdom supports Yemeni government forces against the Iran-backed group. Flightradar24 data showed more than 600 flights affected by the Saturday closure alone.

Witnesses described panic inside the terminal. One passenger at gate 403 said he saw the impact near gate 401 and injured people as others fled. Ambulances and helicopters moved the wounded to hospitals. Medical sources said authorities issued a rare mass call-up of doctors for a serious emergency.

The deadliest prior attack on the kingdom was a 2015 Islamic State suicide bombing that killed 21 at a Shia mosque in Qatif. The current campaign has drawn in questions about US military involvement after years in which Washington resisted direct intervention. Trump had previously declined Saudi requests for such support.

Saudi officials moved the capital’s schools online and kept the main international airport shut while assessing damage. The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, have framed their actions as support for Palestinians and opposition to the Saudi-led intervention. Coalition spokesman Major-General Turki al-Malki said the group would face consequences under customary international humanitarian law.

The immediate effect is disruption to civilian travel in a city of roughly eight million people and pressure on global energy routes already strained by other conflicts. Whether Sunday’s strike produces further casualties or draws a wider military response remains open as both sides trade claims.