12 killed, 309 injured in attack on Riyadh airport as Houthis, Saudi Arabia trade strikes

A suspected attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport killed 12 people and injured 309, Saudi authorities said, amid escalating Saudi-Houthi strikes. Retaliatory attacks have targeted airports and strategic areas in Yemen, intensifying fighting despite a UN-brokered truce in 2022

Riyadh; An attack targeting King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday afternoon has killed 12 people and injured 309 others, the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation said, as Yemen’s Houthi group and Saudi Arabia continued exchanging strikes on major airports.

The Saudi aviation authority said in a statement early Sunday that the fatalities included four Saudi citizens and eight foreign residents — two Bangladeshis and one each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan, Xinhua news agency reported. The injured are receiving treatment at several hospitals, with some in serious condition, the authority said.

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The authority said in an earlier statement that operations at the airport had been temporarily suspended pending damage assessments and safety checks. Following the Saturday attack, the Houthi group said in a statement that it was ready for reciprocal measures with Saudi Arabia to keep airports, seaports and other facilities with humanitarian functions outside the escalating military confrontation.

Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported Saturday that Saudi Arabia launched a new wave of air and missile strikes across Houthi-held areas in Yemen, targeting Sanaa International Airport in the Houthi-held capital, areas near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait and several northern provinces.

Also on Saturday, Yemen’s government forces said that more than 1,150 Houthi fighters had been “neutralized” and over 180 military and logistical vehicles destroyed or damaged in over 1,900 strikes across multiple fronts in Yemen in the past 24 hours. The figures could not be independently verified. Around Yemen’s southwestern city of Taiz, Houthi advances have put increasing pressure on government forces defending the city and disrupted key roads connecting it with government-held areas in southern Yemen, government military sources told Xinhua, adding that fierce clashes were underway south of the city.

Supported by Saudi airstrikes, the Yemeni government launched a large-scale offensive on Monday, seeking to retake Houthi-held territory, with some of the fiercest fighting concentrated around the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait. Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of the country’s north.

A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised Yemeni government, now based in the southern port city of Aden. The renewed fighting marked a major escalation after a UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted major hostilities.