Riyadh airport strike seems to kill 12 and wound 309, Saudi aviation authority says

A strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday afternoon, October 10, killed 12 people and injured 309, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) announced early Sunday, according to Saudi Gazette. Some of the wounded remain in critical condition, the authority said, and all of the injured went to hospitals for treatment. GACA listed the dead as four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, and one person each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan, Saudi Gazette and The Associated Press report. AP calls the strike the deadliest attack in any Gulf Arab country since the start of the Iran war.

Accounts of the strike itself come mostly from unnamed officials and witnesses. A regional official, speaking anonymously, told AP that a missile struck a complex housing terminals 3 and 4, which serve domestic flights. A diplomatic source briefed on the matter told AFP, in a report carried by Pakistan’s Dawn, that the airport took “a missile around 3:00pm.” One witness told AFP: “I was on gate 403” at the domestic terminal. “I saw 401 hit, I saw injured [people] in front of my eyes. Everyone was running.” A relative of one wounded person told AFP that shattered glass hit that person in the shoulders and arms.

Hospitals across the capital took in casualties. A medical source told AFP that the health ministry ordered emergency-room doctors to report to hospitals around Riyadh, and said staff heard they faced a “serious emergency situation.” A source at one local hospital told AFP that five people from the airport had entered intensive care there. Two doctors told AFP that the wounded included several pilgrims who had waited to board a flight to Mecca.

Who fired the missile remains disputed in the reporting this desk read. The GACA statement did not assign blame, AP reports. The diplomatic source who spoke to AFP attributed the strike to a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and Spain’s embassy, in a message on X, warned of a “new attack… by the Houthis,” AFP reports. ABC News (Australia) reports that the Houthis claimed responsibility. AP and AFP, by contrast, report that the rebels issued no immediate statement on Saturday’s strike, though the Houthis did claim earlier attacks on the same airport this week. Earlier on Saturday, the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of striking Sanaa International Airport in the Yemeni capital, AP reports.

Saturday’s strike capped a week of attacks on Saudi airports. Arab News reports that a Tuesday attack on Abha airport, near the Yemeni border, killed a Moroccan woman and an Algerian woman, and that a Wednesday strike on the Riyadh airport killed a Sudanese man. On Thursday, GACA said, attacks on the Riyadh airport killed three Saudi citizens, including a pilot, according to Saudi Gazette and ABC News (Australia). Two regional officials told AP that Thursday’s attacks damaged three planes; the Saudi national carrier said one of its aircraft took damage on the ground with no passengers aboard, per AP.

Air travel through the Saudi capital largely stopped. GACA suspended operations while it assessed damage and checked the safety of airport facilities, Saudi Gazette reports, and an official notice to aviators set the suspension through midnight, according to AP. Flightradar24 counted 155 canceled arrivals and 161 canceled departures, plus 222 delayed flights, AFP reports, and said flights bound for Riyadh had begun diverting, mainly to Jeddah. AP cites FlightAware for at least 291 canceled flights at the airport over 24 hours; ABC News (Australia), citing the same tracker at an earlier point, reported 225. The United States, Britain, Germany, Australia and Canada warned citizens to avoid the airport, AP reports. A senior Western diplomat told AFP that several embassies had barred staff travel to and from the airport over the next week “as a prudential step.”

Washington now weighs a direct role. Shortly after the attack, Trump said he would consider joining Saudi strikes on the Houthis. “We may. We’re going to look at it,” he said, according to AP. “We just found out about the recent attack. So we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.” AP reports that officials have described U.S. help so far as intelligence sharing, target identification and planning for the latest offensive against the Houthis. AP also reports that Saudi Arabia, running low on missile interceptors, asked France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt last month to deploy air defense support, according to regional officials.

The attacks come as the war in Yemen widens. A Saudi-led coalition launched a major offensive against the Houthis about a week ago, providing air support to Yemeni government forces trying to reverse recent Houthi gains along the Red Sea, AP reports. AFP reports that government forces have pushed against Houthi positions around the Bab al-Mandab strait, a claim the Houthis say they repelled; AFP notes that it could not independently verify either side’s claims. Later on Saturday, the coalition said a projectile fell near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam and that air defenses intercepted a Houthi-launched ballistic missile over Al-Kharj governorate, southeast of Riyadh, AP reports.

Some signs point to diplomacy, others away from it. Saudi Arabia said its foreign minister and his Omani counterpart discussed “supporting diplomatic solutions to de-escalate tensions” by phone on Saturday, AP reports. AFP, however, reports that both Riyadh and the Houthis have signaled a willingness to keep fighting. Hours after the strike, the Saudi energy ministry still promoted a major international energy conference set to open in Riyadh on Sunday, according to AP. Saudi authorities also warned the public this week that “filming, publishing or sharing information related to countering missiles and drones and their impact sites exposes you to legal liability,” AP and ABC News (Australia) report.

Open questions this desk will watch: whether the Houthis formally claim Saturday’s strike; whether Trump commits U.S. forces to strikes in Yemen; when King Khalid International Airport reopens; whether the death toll rises among the critically injured; and whether Sunday’s energy conference in Riyadh goes ahead.