Attack on Riyadh International Airport leaves 12 dead and 309 injured

A [sic] attack at Riyadh International Airport, the capital of Saudi Arabia, has left at least 12 people dead and another 309 injured.

Local authorities confirmed the news, while all operations at King Khalid International Airport were suspended. According to Saudi civil aviation authorities, the victims included four Saudi nationals, two from Bangladesh, and one national each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt. Some of the injured are in critical condition.

Damage assessment at the airport is still under way, while witnesses described scenes of panic. One witness who was in the domestic flights terminal said they saw Gate 401 being hit and injured people in front of them.

“Everyone was running,” the witness recounted, describing the moments of the attack. Reuters reported that more than a dozen ambulances were seen arriving at the airport at high speed.

Major General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition, announced that the attack on a passenger terminal caused deaths and injuries among travelers and airport staff. He described the incident as an “act of war” in the truest sense.

The coalition attributed the attack to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran. So far, they have made no direct comment on Saturday’s attack, but they claimed responsibility for other attacks on the same airport carried out on Thursday, in which three people were killed and an aircraft was damaged.

Three other people were killed in separate Houthi attacks on two Saudi airports on October 6 and 7. The latest attack is considered the deadliest in Saudi Arabia since May 2015.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly condemned the latest attacks on Saudi Arabia and confirmed that an American citizen was among the victims.

When asked whether the United States could join Saudi Arabia in military operations against the Houthis, President Donald Trump said his administration was considering the possibility.

Trump told reporters: “We can do it. We will consider it. We have just learned about the latest attack, so we will make a decision. We act very quickly.”

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply shocked” by the attacks, which he described as violations of international law.

He called for the attacks to stop immediately. The incident was also condemned by Egypt, Palestine and Qatar.

Western embassies in Saudi Arabia have urged their citizens to stay away from Riyadh airport. The British Foreign Office advised British nationals to avoid the area until the airport is deemed safe.

A number of Gulf airlines have canceled flights to and from Riyadh, while others have suspended services because of the security situation. According to the flight-tracking platform Flightradar, flights to the Saudi capital have been canceled or diverted.

The attack comes amid an escalation in fighting between Yemen’s government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia, and the Houthi rebels, who control most of the country and enjoy Iran’s support.

The Houthis claim that their attacks on Saudi Arabia are a response to Saudi support for the Yemeni government and what they describe as a years-long blockade.

The latest escalation is also linked to developments along the Red Sea coast, where the Houthis have taken control of strategically important areas, including the port of Mocha near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key point for international maritime transport.

The Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 with the aim of preventing the Houthis from taking power in Yemen and supporting the internationally recognized government.

After years of bombing and ground fighting that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and contributed to one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises, the parties reached a temporary ceasefire in 2022.

However, the informal truce began to weaken in July. The Houthis declared a “naval blockade” against Saudi Arabia and intensified missile and drone attacks on airports, oil facilities and tanker ships in the Red Sea.

The situation remains tense, and it is still unclear whether the attack on Riyadh airport will be followed by a direct military response from the United States and Saudi Arabia.