en.malanginspirasi.com – A recent strike targeting King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, has left at least 12 people dead and 309 others injured, according to local officials.
The assault on the aviation hub follows closely on the heels of similar strikes claimed by Yemen’s Houthi movement.
Data released by the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority indicates that the fatalities include four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, and individual citizens from Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, and the United States.
In the wake of the strike, all flight operations at the Riyadh facility have been halted.
According to a report by news agency Reuters citing a witness on site, over a dozen emergency ambulances were observed responding to the facility.
Following the event, the US Embassy confirmed it was “aware of attacks”, urging Americans to avoid the area.
Concurrently, the Saudi-led military coalition operating in Yemen reported that an additional projectile landed near King Fahd International Airport located in Dammam, in eastern Saudi Arabia.
This latest incident arrives amid consecutive strikes targeting regional aviation infrastructure.
On the preceding day, Saudi authorities reported three fatalities—including a pilot—from two separate Houthi attacks on the same facility.
Also Read:
Flydubai Flight to Tel Aviv Diverts to Saudi Arabia After Mid-Air Cockpit Attack
These followed previous Houthi strikes on two other Saudi airports on October 6 and 7, which resulted in three additional deaths.
Describing the immediate scene inside the domestic terminal, a traveler told the news agency that they had seen gate 401 hit and “injured [people] in front of my eyes”, adding: “Everyone was running.”
Western diplomatic missions across Saudi Arabia issued safety advisories instructing their citizens to clear the area.
The UK Foreign Office directed British nationals to stay away “until the airport is secure and to monitor the advice of the Saudi authorities”.
In response to the disruption, multiple regional carriers suspended connections to the site, with Kuwait Airways explicitly citing the “security situation” there.
Real-time air traffic monitoring data from Flightradar indicates that incoming flights to Riyadh have been either re-routed or canceled entirely.
Hospitals in the area mobilized personnel to handle the influx of casualties.
A medical source told AFP that doctors were summoned urgently, adding: “We were told we are dealing with a ‘serious emergency situation’,” the medical source told the agency.
The escalation comes amid intensified hostilities between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces and the Houthis, who hold control over significant portions of northwestern Yemen.
The Houthi leadership maintains that its cross-border strikes target Saudi Arabia due to its military backing of Yemeni government forces.
Tensions escalated sharply after Houthi units advanced along key sectors of the Red Sea coastline, including the strategic port of Mokha near the Bab al-Mandab Strait—a critical choke point for international shipping routes.
Pro-government forces subsequently stated they had “secured” the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.
The regional coalition, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, originally formed in 2015 alongside allied Arab nations to counter Houthi expansion against Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
Though a temporary truce established in 2022 paused years of intense aerial bombardments and ground clashes, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and sparked a severe humanitarian crisis, the informal ceasefire began unraveling in July.
Following the truce breakdown, the Houthis declared a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia, initiating missile and drone strikes against Saudi aviation facilities, oil infrastructure, and Red Sea shipping vessels.
Houthi representatives framed the offensive as a direct retaliation for a long-standing Saudi blockade and an earlier air strike on Sanaa airport.
