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Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation reported that the October 10 strike on King Khalid International Airport killed four Saudi citizens along with two Bangladeshis and single nationals from the United States Egypt Jordan Syria Palestine and Sudan while 309 people suffered injuries some of them critical. The missile hit a terminal serving domestic flights prompting an immediate evacuation and the diversion of all incoming aircraft according to flight tracking data from Flightradar24 which showed more than 600 flights canceled or delayed. A Saudi-led military coalition blamed the Iran-backed Houthis for the assault terming it a full-fledged war crime and promising a decisive response coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Malki said in a statement distributed on social media.
The attack marked the third on the airport within a week following strikes on Thursday that killed at least three Saudis including a pilot and damaged a commercial plane on the tarmac the Saudi civil aviation authority confirmed. Nasr al-Din Amer a senior Houthi official appeared to acknowledge the latest strike by posting on X that the group had shut down Riyadh international airport CNN reported. Hospitals across the capital activated emergency protocols to treat the influx of wounded transported by both ambulance and helicopter Reuters correspondents noted citing people familiar with the medical response.
This incident stands as the deadliest attack on Saudi soil in more than a decade according to regional security monitors who trace the pattern back to the intensification of Houthi operations since a truce unraveled in July. The Saudi-backed Yemeni government had launched a fresh offensive against the Houthis only days earlier Al Jazeera reported from Sanaa adding that the rebels had warned airlines to avoid Saudi airspace entirely. President Donald Trump indicated that Washington was reviewing whether the United States would join Saudi strikes against the group multiple outlets including The Irish Times quoted him as saying.
King Khalid International Airport Saudi Arabia’s second-busiest facility serving a metropolitan area of roughly eight million people remained closed at least through late Sunday as damage assessments continued the civil aviation authority stated. Witnesses described sudden explosions without prior warning from the kingdom’s alert system one telling Agence France-Presse that passengers at gate 403 saw the impact and fled as injured people lay on the ground. A separate projectile fell near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam on the same day the coalition added without reporting casualties there.
The assault forms part of an unprecedented wave of Houthi attacks on Saudi targets including oil facilities and tankers since the summer escalation a pattern that CNN attributed to Iranian assistance in building the group’s missile and drone arsenal. Nawaf Obaid a senior research fellow at King’s College London told a broadcaster that the strike was expected after recent Saudi air operations and highlighted vulnerabilities even in multi-layered air defense systems. A diplomatic source briefed on the events told Dawn newspaper that the Houthis were deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure such as the Riyadh airport.
International warnings preceded the incident with the United States Canada and United Kingdom embassies advising citizens to avoid the facility amid ongoing military activity according to statements from those missions. The Saudi civil aviation authority emphasized that all injured individuals received treatment at multiple hospitals while property damage was still being evaluated in parallel with efforts to restore operations. Coalition officials reiterated that the targeting of civilian aviation constituted a serious violation as they prepared their counter-measures in the days ahead.
