Yemen’s Houthis issued a new threat to Saudi Arabia’s airspace on Sunday after an attack on the kingdom’s international airport in Riyadh killed 12 people and wounded hundreds, forcing authorities to stop operations.
The Saudi-led coalition also announced on Saturday evening the fall of a projectile near Dammam airport in the kingdom’s east. The US embassy in Saudi Arabia on Sunday said staff now require permission to use airports in Dammam and Jeddah, days after a similar order was issued for Riyadh. Britain, Germany, Iraq and Jordan also denounced it. It also came on the eve of Saudi Arabia’s high-profile convention and entertainment season. Riyadh usually hosts a packed calendar of events, including its flagship investment conference drawing foreign leaders and business titans.
It was the deadliest attack in the kingdom since a 2015 suicide bombing.
The Riyadh attack prompted health officials to activate a rare mass call-up of doctors, a medical source said. Schools in Riyadh switched to remote learning for the second time in a month, according to emails seen by AFP that were received by parents. The European Union’s chief called the strike a “dangerous escalation”, while Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the “heinous attack” and Gulf neighbours the UAE and Qatar called it a violation of Saudi sovereignty.
The strike came in a week when the group intensified its attacks on the Saudi capital’s King Khalid International Airport, where three people were also killed on Thursday, as well as other key targets in the world’s top crude oil exporter. The coalition vowed to respond, and on Sunday Houthi media reported two Saudi strikes in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled Sanaa governorate. Saturday’s attack, the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade, was a sharp escalation in the Yemen war, where Riyadh backs the internationally recognised government against the Houthis, who captured swathes of Red Sea coastline in a lightning offensive last month. they threatened new attacks on the kingdom’s airports, except for the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, warning passengers not to travel While the Iran-backed Houthis stopped short of claiming the strike. A diplomatic source also attributed the strike to a Houthi missile. We’re going to look at it. Everyone was running. The US, Canadian, German and Spanish embassies in Saudi Arabia warned their citizens to avoid Riyadh airport. The Houthis claimed to have repelled them. Claims by both sides have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation moving fast on the ground and access for journalists difficult. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
READ | 12 Killed, Over 300 Injured In Missile Attack On Saudi’s Riyadh Airport “We may. It said some of the 309 wounded were in serious condition. Authorities suspended operations at the airport into Sunday, a senior aviation source said, with air traffic monitor Flightradar24 saying the closure was extended until 2100 GMT. “I saw 401 hit, I saw injured in front of my eyes. Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has supported Yemen’s government militarily since 2015.
READ | How A Series Of Mistakes Pulled Saudi Arabia Back Into Yemen War “The airports and airspace are exposed to targeting and constitute a theatre of operations for our forces,” military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on X. The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen attributed Saturday’s attack to them, calling it a “full-fledged war crime”. The assault on Riyadh’s airport drew condemnation from the United Nations and world leaders including US President Donald Trump, who said he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision,” he told reporters. Four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese were killed, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said. A Riyadh-based Western diplomat told AFP the official number of injured did not appear to give a full picture. The number does not seem to include those with minor wounds, the diplomat said. A second aviation source who helps oversee flights to Riyadh confirmed the halt in operations “until further notice”. “Some systems have been damaged — the radar and communications equipment,” said the source, adding that runways also needed to be assessed. One passenger told AFP they witnessed a strike in the airport’s domestic terminal. “I was on gate 403,” the witness said. A French resident of Riyadh said their flight to Europe was cancelled and they would drive to the Qatari capital Doha to fly. In Yemen, Saudi-supported government forces were advancing in their counter-offensive against the Houthis around the Bab al-Mandab strait, a key shipping route, military sources said Saturday.
A senior Western diplomat told AFP that several embassies were banning their staff from using the airport “over the next week”.
