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The Saudi-led coalition has vowed a decisive response against Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Sunday after an airport strike in Riyadh killed 12 people and injured 309.
The attack was the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade. It also forced authorities to suspend airport operations and assess the damage. The coalition blamed the Iran-backed Houthis for the strike, describing it as a “full-fledged war crime.” A diplomatic source told AFP that a missile caused the strike.
Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said the dead included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, and one citizen each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan. The authority added that some of the 309 injured people were in serious condition.
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Health officials also called in doctors as an unusual emergency measure to treat the casualties, a medical source told AFP. Two doctors said several pilgrims travelling to Mecca were among the injured. Meanwhile, foreign embassies warned their citizens to avoid the airport. A senior Western diplomat told AFP that several embassies had barred their staff from using the facility over the following week.
Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Malki condemned the attack on the civilian facility.
“The cowardly terrorist attack by the Terrorist Houthi Militia… which resulted in deaths and injuries among civilian passengers and airport staff, constitutes a full-fledged war crime,” he said in a statement on X.
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Earlier, the coalition said it had intercepted missiles targeting Saudi Arabia and destroyed their launch platforms.
The Houthis had claimed responsibility for a series of strikes targeting the airport on Thursday. Those attacks killed three people and damaged an aircraft. However, the group had not immediately claimed responsibility for Saturday’s strike. Saturday’s attack was the deadliest on Saudi soil since May 2015, when an Islamic State suicide bombing killed 21 worshippers at a Shia mosque in Qatif.
The strike has heightened security concerns in Riyadh before the kingdom’s convention and entertainment season, which begins this month. The city also hosts major events, including its flagship investment conference, which attracts foreign leaders and business executives.
