RIYADH, October 11, 2026 (DAILYNWZ) — A Houthi attack on Riyadh’s international airport killed at least 12 people and wounded 309 on Saturday, Saudi authorities said, marking the deadliest strike in the kingdom in more than a decade and raising new concerns about its air defenses.
The attack was the third targeting King Khalid International Airport this week as the Iran-backed Houthis intensify a campaign against Saudi Arabia. Saturday’s strike came without warning, and the kingdom’s threat alert system issued no notification, according to the authorities.
The Saudi civil aviation authority said the dead included four Saudi nationals, two people from Bangladesh and one each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt. Hospitals received large numbers of casualties by ambulance and helicopter, with some of the wounded in critical condition, people briefed on the matter said.
The two earlier attacks on the airport had killed four people and severely damaged a Saudi commercial aircraft parked on the tarmac.
All flights to Riyadh were diverted or cancelled on Saturday, and airport operations were temporarily suspended, the civil aviation authority said. The facility serves a city of about 8 million people. The Houthi media office chief later claimed on X that the group had “shut down Riyadh international airport.”
The strikes have exposed potential weaknesses in Saudi Arabia’s defenses as the kingdom conducts an air campaign against the Houthis in support of a ground offensive by Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
A Saudi-led military coalition vowed to respond to Saturday’s attack. Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government have reported hundreds of strikes against Houthi-held areas. The Houthis say those operations have killed civilians, including women and children. Reuters said it could not independently verify the claims.
US President Donald Trump said Washington was considering whether to join Saudi strikes against the group. Asked outside the White House whether the United States might take part, Trump said his administration would assess the situation and make a decision quickly.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attacks, saying they “demonstrate a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life.” The US Embassy in Riyadh said it was aware of the attacks and strongly advised American citizens to avoid the airport and surrounding areas.
The latest violence comes as Saudi Arabia and its allies seek to reverse Houthi gains in Yemen. Riyadh entered the war in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, the previous year. The conflict reached a bloody stalemate, with hundreds of thousands of Yemenis killed by fighting and famine, before a 2022 agreement froze hostilities.
That truce began to unravel over the summer. A rapid Houthi advance wrested control of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait area on the Red Sea from Saudi-backed government forces. The Yemeni government launched a counteroffensive this week but has made only limited progress, while the Houthis have placed Taiz, the country’s third-largest city, under siege.
The attacks also threaten to disrupt Riyadh’s preparations to host major energy and investment conferences. Several airlines had already suspended or cancelled services to the Saudi capital following earlier strikes this week. Organizers said before Saturday’s attack that the conferences would proceed as planned.
