At least twelve dead and hundreds wounded in Houthi missile strike on Riyadh airport

Yemen’s Houthi forces fired a missile at Riyadh’s international airport in Saudi Arabia, resulting in at least twelve fatalities and hundreds of injuries, according to the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority.

King Khalid International Airport halted operations while emergency services rushed to the scene, with over three hundred people reported injured in the deadliest strike on a Gulf Arab nation since the Iran conflict began.

A separate projectile landed near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, the Saudi‑led coalition said, noting that Dammam has become a crucial alternative to Riyadh amid the recent wave of attacks.

Donald Trump indicated he is assessing whether the United States should join Saudi‑led strikes against Iran‑backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen.

He said, “We may. We’re going to look at it,” Trump remarked. “We just learned of the latest attack, so we will decide quickly and act swiftly.”

A Saudi government statement said the victims comprised four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, a Palestinian, an American, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian and a Sudanese.

One witness at Riyadh airport reported hearing an explosion while awaiting a flight, while another said they observed a strike that wounded several people.

The witness told AFP, “I was at gate 403 in the domestic terminal. I saw gate 401 struck and injured people lying before me; everyone fled.”

A relative of one injured person said the victim suffered wounds to the shoulders and arms from flying glass and was taken to hospital.

A missile hit the complex that houses terminals 3 and 4 for domestic flights, a regional official said on condition of anonymity, noting they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Saturday’s strike follows a series of escalating Houthi missile attacks on the kingdom; the airport had already been hit twice this week, resulting in four deaths, additional injuries, and significant damage to an aircraft.

Since the July collapse of a truce with Yemen’s Riyadh‑backed government, the Houthis have repeatedly targeted Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers.

The strike occurred while forces aligned with Yemen’s UN‑recognized government claimed to have launched a successful offensive to retake the Bab al‑Mandab strait from Houthi rebels, although reports differ on whether the advance has been held.

A Houthi spokesman said Aden‑based Saudi‑backed forces were hit with numerous ballistic missiles, artillery and heavy weapons, destroying more than 22 armored vehicles and killing or wounding dozens, including several commanders.

He added, “More than thirty ambulances reached Aden to carry the dead and wounded from the Saudi‑aligned forces’ mobilizations.”

In contrast, Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed al‑Jaber declared, “Blessed Friday and victory for every Yemeni and Arab. Bab al‑Mandab has been cleared of the remnants of the Houthi terrorist militia.”

The exposed five‑square‑mile (13 km²) Perim Island lies across the strait, serving as a lookout for Red Sea traffic entering the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. Aidarous al‑Zubaidi, president of the Southern Transitional Council (STC)—a major southern Yemeni political force—said the island and surrounding coast had been retaken from Houthi control.

A military spokesman for the UN‑recognized government qualified the claim, noting that only about half of the area has been retaken thus far. Waddah al‑Dabish said newly erected Houthi defensive positions near the strait have been breached, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Houthi fighters.

Intelligence suggests up to five hundred Houthi fighters may be stationed on the island, and Saudi Arabia is eager to claim the strait’s recapture as proof that its week‑old land counteroffensive is making progress.

The statement followed remarks by UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg to the Security Council in New York, in which he warned that Yemen—one of the world’s poorest nations—has slipped back into full‑scale war, with women and children likely to suffer first.

Two weeks ago the Houthis seized control of the strait and declared that no Saudi‑linked commercial vessels would be allowed to pass. They are fighting to erase Saudi influence from Yemen and have launched missile strikes on Riyadh to further that goal.

Earlier in the week, premature claims of breakthroughs by the Saudi‑backed Yemeni government surfaced after its counteroffensive began, but securing the strait‑side land and Perim Island—also called Mayyun Island—remains a strategic objective that Western powers desperately want to see achieved.

Source link