Twelve people were killed and 309 were wounded when a missile slammed into Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Saturday, October 10, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said — the deadliest attack on a Gulf Arab state in over a decade. Hours later, US President Donald Trump said America could join Saudi Arabia’s strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The dead included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, and one citizen each of the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan, the General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement, according to Reuters. Hospitals across the Saudi capital were flooded with the wounded, some in critical condition, after health officials activated a rare mass call-up of doctors.
Missile hit terminals 3 and 4 without warning
Residents reported at least two loud explosions that rocked the capital on Saturday. One traveller told AFP they were at gate 403 in the domestic terminal when a nearby gate was hit, leaving injured people lying on the floor as panicked passengers fled. “Everyone was running,” the witness said. More than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing to the airport, and the wounded were evacuated by ambulance and helicopter.
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The strike came without warning — Saudi Arabia’s threat warning system issued no alert ahead of the attack, according to people briefed on the matter cited by Reuters. The Saudi government’s media office did not immediately respond to questions about the incident and the casualty toll.
Third attack this week — Houthis claim responsibility
Saturday’s strike was the third attack on the airport in a single week. Two earlier attacks killed at least four people and badly damaged a parked commercial plane. Reuters later reported that the Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for Saturday’s strike, a major escalation of their missile campaign against the kingdom.
The Houthis have declared Saudi airspace a military operations zone and told airlines to stay away, after the Saudi-led coalition launched a major offensive against the group in neighbouring Yemen earlier this month. Saudi Arabia is providing air support to Yemeni government forces fighting the Houthis along the Red Sea coast — a fight unfolding alongside a wider confrontation with Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, which has already disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Flights suspended, embassies warn
Flight tracking site Flightradar24 said 316 flights were cancelled — 155 arriving and 161 departing — with 222 more delayed, and a notice to airmen kept operations suspended into the night. The US, British and Canadian embassies all warned their citizens to avoid the airport, with Canada citing “ongoing military activity.”
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This is a fast-moving story: our first report on Saturday’s attack covered the blast, evacuations and flight cancellations as they happened.
Will the US join the fight against the Houthis?
Asked outside the White House whether Washington would back Saudi strikes on the Houthis, Trump left the door open. “We may. We’re going to look at it,” he told reporters, according to Reuters. “We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”
American entry into the campaign would mark a dramatic escalation of a conflict already rattling oil markets and air travel across the Middle East. For now, the kingdom’s main international airport has been hit three times in one week — and airlines are pulling services from Riyadh as the attacks intensify.
Based on reporting by Reuters, the Associated Press, AFP and Dawn.
