Attack on Riyadh airport injures several, suspends flights

An attack on the international airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital injured several people and halted operations Saturday, authorities said, days after deadly strikes on the same airport were attributed to Yemen’s Houthi group.

The General Authority of Civil Aviation said flights at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh were temporarily suspended while officials assessed the damage and worked to establish the number of people injured. The Houthis had not claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack, Al Jazeera reported.

A source at a local hospital told AFP that dozens of people had been wounded, according to the BBC. An eyewitness who said they had been at gate 401 in the domestic terminal told AFP: “Everyone was running.” Reuters reported that an eyewitness saw more than a dozen ambulances heading to the airport, the BBC said. A medical source told AFP that doctors had been asked to report to hospitals. “We were told we are dealing with a ‘serious emergency situation,’” the source said.

The disruption spread to air travel across the region. Several Gulf airlines cancelled flights to and from Riyadh, the BBC reported, and aviation tracker Flightradar showed flights to the city had been diverted or cancelled. Kuwait Airways cited a “security situation” at the airport. Earlier Saturday, the airport had urged passengers to check their flight status with their airlines before travelling there, without initially specifying the cause of the disruption.

Foreign embassies urged their citizens to stay away. The US mission said it was “aware of attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh” and strongly recommended avoiding the airport and surrounding areas. The British and Irish embassies described a “serious incident”; the UK Foreign Office told British nationals to stay away until the airport was secure and to follow Saudi authorities’ advice. Canada’s embassy cited “ongoing military activity” in its warning to avoid travel to the airport. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry told citizens whose travel to the kingdom had been disrupted to contact local embassies, Al Jazeera reported.

Saudi aviation authorities said three Saudi citizens, including a pilot, were killed in Houthi attacks on the airport Thursday. The BBC reported that another three people were killed in Houthi attacks on two Saudi airports on October 6 and 7. Al Jazeera reported that alleged attacks on Abha and King Khalid airports days earlier killed three civilians and injured 36 others.

A Houthi military spokesperson said Thursday that the group had launched a ballistic missile at the Riyadh airport and claimed it hit its target, causing damage and disrupting flights. The Houthis have warned aviation companies against using Saudi airspace, except over Mecca and Medina, Al Jazeera reported.

Asked after Saturday’s attack whether the United States might join Saudi strikes on the Houthis, President Donald Trump said: “We may. We’re going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”

The attacks come amid renewed fighting between the Houthis and Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces. The Houthis say they are targeting Saudi Arabia over its support for those forces.