Iran-backed Houthi rebels hit Riyadh’s main airport again, killing one and wounding 11 after a prior strike left 13 dead, as Saudi allies rush forces and the group threatens more chaos.
An unidentified projectile slammed into Terminal 4 at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Sunday, sparking a fire, killing one person, and injuring 11, Saudi civil aviation authorities said. Saudi air defenses also intercepted a cruise missile near the facility the same day.
The attack came one day after a Houthi missile strike on the same airport killed 13 people and wounded more than 300. The Guardian reported the back-to-back hits on a major Gulf aviation hub, with travelers caught in debris and sirens as the Iran-backed rebels doubled down on threats against Saudi airspace.
Videos circulating online showed passengers walking through wreckage inside the Riyadh terminal while alarms blared. Saudi authorities extended the airport’s closure and moved schools online until Thursday.
Saturday’s strike left 13 dead across multiple nationalities
The Saturday missile attack was the deadliest blow on a Gulf country since the wider regional war with Iran began in March. Among the dead were four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, and victims from Palestine, the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Sudan.
Egyptian state-run television identified one of the dead as Azza Ramzy, a 28-year-old flight attendant for the Saudi airline Flynas. The Syrian embassy in Riyadh identified another victim as Buthaina Ahmad Oweida, a 56-year-old widowed mother of four who had lived in Saudi Arabia for five years.
Her niece, Nisreen Oweida, said the family came from Syria’s northern Idlib province and that her aunt had fled the civil war. Oweida had been living in Mecca and was returning from a visit to her sister in Riyadh when she was killed.
The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia said one of its citizens died Sunday from wounds suffered in the Saturday attack. That raised the human cost again as emergency crews were still dealing with the damage.
Sunday’s projectile and a second Saudi airport under fire
Just the News reported that a projectile struck a passenger terminal at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on Sunday, one day after the missile attack that killed at least 12 people and injured more than 300, according to the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis.
Saudi authorities also confirmed an attack Sunday evening on King Fahd International Airport in the eastern city of Dammam. The civil aviation authority said on X that damage assessment and safety checks were still under way with other agencies.
“The assessment of the damage and verification of the safety of airport facilities were still under way, in coordination with the relevant authorities.”
"The assessment of the damage and verification of the safety of airport facilities were still under way, in coordination with the relevant authorities."
The British embassy in Saudi Arabia advised against all but essential travel to Jeddah and Dammam and urged people to avoid almost all airports. The warning underscored how quickly commercial aviation in the kingdom became a target set.
Houthis claim more attacks and threaten airlines
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed the Saturday assault and said they had launched several attacks on the Riyadh airport. On Sunday they warned travelers and airline staff to stay away.
The group posted on X that Saudi airports and airspace had become a “theatre of operations” for its forces.
On X, the Houthis stated:
"We renew our warning to all airlines, experts, employees, workers and travellers against using Saudi airports and airspace, as they are vulnerable to attack and have become a theatre of operations for our forces."
The New York Post reported the group also said international companies and travelers should not operate flights to Saudi airports because they are unsafe, with an exception claimed for the airspace of Mecca and Medina.
The Houthis added that “the worst is yet to come” if Saudi military action inside Yemen continued. That is the language of a militia trying to dictate civilian air traffic through fear.
Riyadh hits back as Sana’a claims fly
Saudi Arabia has been conducting airstrikes against the Houthis while Saudi-backed government forces push to roll back recent rebel gains. The Houthis claimed Saudi aircraft struck the airport in Sana’a, the rebel-held capital, on Sunday. They also said a Saudi airstrike hit a home there, killing a child and injuring six others. Those figures come from the Houthis and were not independently confirmed in the available accounts.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said Saturday night the coalition would “respond firmly,” offering few other details at the time.
The Houthi health ministry claimed coalition airstrikes over the previous six weeks killed 91 Yemenis and wounded 168, and said 60 percent were women and children. That claim likewise remains a Houthi government figure.
Airport security crises have become a recurring pressure point in the wider fight with Iran-linked networks, including episodes such as when the U.S. returned a bomber fleet from RAF Fairford after a suspected Iran-linked plot.
Trump weighs options as partners move forces
President Donald Trump said he was weighing whether to join the Saudi military campaign in Yemen and would speak with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after the earlier airport attack. Asked about the strikes, Trump told reporters: “We’re going to look into it.”
About 200 U.S. military advisers are stationed in Saudi Arabia. Washington has assisted with intelligence cooperation and targeting but had not directly joined combat against the Houthis. Saudi interceptor stocks have run low, and Riyadh has asked for further help from France, Egypt, the United Kingdom, and Pakistan.
The UK said it would provide defensive support, including refueling for aircraft working to intercept Houthi missiles. On Monday, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey issued a joint statement saying they would move quickly to implement their mutual defense pact, including by speeding up deployment of military forces inside the kingdom.
Emergency air movements and rapid protective steps are familiar in this fight; officials have even had to smuggle Trump out of Turkey in a catering truck under prior Iran missile threats.
Global routes and a fragile Yemen front
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the airport assault on X, tying it to Iran’s proxy network.
Von der Leyen wrote:
"Attacks by Iran’s proxies are pushing the region into a spiral of violence."
She added that the same forces “are destabilising crucial global transport and energy nodes.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres also condemned the airport attack.
The military picture inside Yemen hardened again this year. In early September the Houthis launched a campaign to seize more of Yemen’s Red Sea coast after months of rising tension. Saudi-backed government forces answered with their own push, but they have not broken the Houthi’s hold near the Bab al-Mandab strait and Perim Island, a chokepoint that carries roughly 10 percent of global maritime goods.
Saudi Arabia first led a coalition into Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis seized Sana’a and toppled the government. A UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022 froze the front lines for a stretch of relative calm. That calm is gone. The rebels’ airport campaign lands atop shipping threats that already rattled insurers, carriers, and energy markets.
Civilian hubs become the pressure point
King Khalid International Airport is not a remote military strip. It is a passenger hub. Terminal 4 was hit while ordinary travelers moved through the building. A flight attendant on a domestic carrier was killed. A Syrian mother of four who had rebuilt a life in Mecca never made it home. An Indian national wounded on Saturday died the next day.
The Houthis want airlines to treat Saudi runways as a war zone. Their own statements say so. They want workers and passengers to stay away. They want political leverage from fires in terminals and body counts in arrival halls.
Saudi air defenses knocked down at least one cruise missile near Riyadh while another projectile still got through to Terminal 4. Dammam required its own damage survey the same night. Britain told its people to treat major Saudi airports as places to avoid. Schools shifted online. Flights stopped.
That is the record left by Iran’s Yemen proxy in a single weekend: mass casualties on Saturday, another lethal hit on Sunday, open threats to global aviation, and a diplomatic scramble to reinforce the kingdom.
When militias backed by Tehran can close civilian airports at will, the cost lands on passengers, crews, and the governments left to restore basic order.
