Several Injured in Reported Attack on Riyadh Airport

Al Arabiya

Saudia aircraft at King Khalid International Airport in the capital Riyadh.

Several people have reportedly been injured in an attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, according to media reports, days after Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed attacks on the Saudi capital’s airport.

The airport was evacuated after a loud explosion was heard on Saturday, according to reports by two international news agencies.

Reuters, citing an eyewitness, reported that more than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing to the airport. A source at a local hospital told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that dozens of people had been wounded.

Saudi authorities have not officially confirmed the reported attack. The airport advised passengers to check with their airlines before travelling there.

The incident came a day after Saudi authorities reported that three people, including a pilot, had been killed in two Houthi attacks carried out the previous day. Three others were killed in Houthi attacks on two Saudi airports on 6 and 7 October.

Western embassies in Saudi Arabia warned their citizens to stay away from the airport, while several Gulf airlines cancelled flights to and from Riyadh. Kuwait Airways cited the security situation in announcing its cancellations.

According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, flights to Riyadh had been diverted or cancelled.

The reported attack comes amid a sharp escalation in fighting between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces and the Houthis, who control much of the country’s north-west.

The Houthis say they are targeting Saudi Arabia in response to its support for government forces in Yemen’s civil war.

The conflict intensified after the Houthis launched a rapid offensive along the Red Sea coast, seizing strategically important areas, including the port of Mokha near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital chokepoint for international shipping.

Yemeni pro-government forces have since said they had secured the strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

A Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 after a group of Arab countries joined forces to support the internationally recognised government against the Houthis.

A ceasefire was brokered in 2022 following years of airstrikes and ground fighting that contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and fuelled one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. However, the informal truce began to unravel in July.

The Houthis subsequently announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and launched missile and drone attacks targeting Saudi airports, oil facilities and vessels in the Red Sea. The group said the attacks were retaliation for what it described as a prolonged Saudi blockade and an airstrike on Sanaa airport.

Sources: BBC, Reuters, AFP



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