Houthis Hit Riyadh Airport Again, Claim Wider Campaign as Death Toll Rises to 13

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport came under fresh attack Sunday, a day after a Houthi missile strike killed 13 people and wounded more than 300 in Saudi Arabia’s deadliest attack in more than a decade, according to Saudi authorities and international media reports.

The Sunday strike caused a fire in Terminal 4, according to the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen. Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said the attack “resulted in injuries” and that work was underway to assess the damage and verify the safety of the airport’s facilities. Saudi air defenses later intercepted a cruise missile in the airport’s vicinity, coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said. Agence France-Presse journalists reported hearing two blasts in the capital.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack, saying in a Telegram post that they had launched four operations across Saudi Arabia in the past 24 hours, including strikes on King Khalid airport, the Aramco Shedgum gas station, the Tanajib oil refinery and King Fahd airport in Dammam. The group warned international airlines, travelers and workers against using Saudi airports and airspace — with the exception of the airports of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina — describing Saudi airports as “a theatre of operations for our forces.”

Death toll rises to 13

Saturday’s missile strike on a crowded terminal at the kingdom’s second-busiest airport killed 13 people after an Indian national injured in the attack died, the Indian embassy in Riyadh said. The Saudi civil aviation authority had earlier said the attack killed 12 — four Saudis, two Bangladeshis, an American, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian, a Palestinian and a Sudanese — and wounded 309 others. More than 600 flights were canceled and the airport was closed until at least late Sunday, according to Saudi authorities. Flight-tracking data showed nearly three-quarters of Sunday’s scheduled departures from Riyadh canceled.

The Houthis said their attacks were in response to an intensified Saudi air campaign in Yemen, claiming Saudi warplanes had launched 124 airstrikes over the previous 24 hours. A senior Houthi official, Nasr al-Din Amer, wrote on X: “We shut down Riyadh international airport.”

Trump weighs U.S. involvement

President Donald Trump said Saturday he would speak with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the attack, calling it “not acceptable.” Asked whether Washington might join Saudi strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis, Trump told reporters: “We may. We’re going to look at it.” Trump had previously resisted Saudi appeals for direct U.S. military intervention against the group, CNN reported.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed a U.S. citizen was among those killed and condemned the attacks as showing “a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life.”

The strikes drew condemnation from across the globe, with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international law, and U.N. envoy Hans Grundberg calling them “a grave escalation.” The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh urged American citizens to avoid the airport and said embassy staff would need special authorization to use airports in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam; Australia told its citizens in Riyadh to shelter in place, and Britain advised against all but essential travel to parts of the kingdom.

Reporting based on coverage by CNN and The Times.