Riyadh airport attack kills 12, leaves more than 300 injured

• Saudi authorities reported 12 deaths and 309 injuries after Saturday’s attack on King Khalid International Airport.
• Airport operations were suspended and flights diverted, while foreign embassies urged travellers to avoid the area.
• A Saudi-led coalition pledged a response as President Trump said the US was considering joining strikes against the Houthis.

An attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh killed at least 12 people and injured 309 on Saturday, according to Saudi authorities, prompting the suspension of airport operations and the diversion of all flights.

The Saudi civil aviation authority said the victims included four Saudi nationals, two Bangladeshis and one citizen each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt. The assault was reported to be the deadliest in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade.

It was the third reported attack on the airport within a week. Although the strikes have been linked to an escalating campaign by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement, the group had not claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack at the time of the report.

Witnesses described an explosion inside the airport, which serves the Saudi capital’s population of around eight million. One eyewitness reported seeing injured people lying on the ground, while more than a dozen ambulances were seen heading towards the facility. Verified footage also showed emergency vehicles at the scene.

An injured traveller said an object was seen moving across the sky before part of the ceiling near a departure gate collapsed.

The US embassy in Riyadh strongly advised American citizens to avoid the airport and nearby areas. Other Western embassies issued similar warnings as airlines cancelled services or diverted flights.

The Houthis have warned international airlines against using Saudi airspace, describing it as a zone of military operations. They exempted airspace over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina from that warning.

A Saudi-led military coalition vowed to respond to the latest attack. US President Donald Trump said Washington was considering joining Saudi operations against the Houthis, adding that his administration had only recently learned of the strike and would assess its response. No final decision was announced.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the airport attacks, saying they showed disregard for innocent civilian lives. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the strike and called for an immediate end to attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, which he said violate international law.

Earlier attacks on the airport during the week killed four people and extensively damaged a Saudi commercial aircraft parked on the tarmac, according to the report. The repeated strikes have raised concerns over the vulnerability of Saudi air defences while the kingdom continues its military campaign against the Houthis.

The escalation comes as Saudi Arabia backs a ground offensive by Yemen’s internationally recognised government. It is unfolding amid a wider regional conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran.

The latest fighting follows the collapse of the ceasefire reached between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in 2022. Hostilities intensified again during the summer, when Houthi forces advanced into territory around the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

The Saudi-backed Yemeni government launched an offensive this week to recapture the territory, although progress has reportedly been slow. Houthi forces have also placed Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, under siege.

Saudi Arabia entered the Yemen war in 2015, leading an Arab coalition seeking to remove the Houthis from the capital, Sanaa. Years of conflict have caused widespread destruction and contributed to hundreds of thousands of deaths through fighting, famine and related causes.

Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s government have reported hundreds of strikes on Houthi-controlled territory. The Houthis allege that some of those attacks killed civilians, including women and children, but those claims could not be independently verified in the report.