King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital has been hit for a second time in as many days, officials have said, with a projectile striking the facility on Sunday and starting a fire inside one of its passenger halls.
Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said the latest incident had caused injuries. It came one day after a strike on the same Riyadh airport killed 13 people and injured 308 others, in an attack that followed similar strikes earlier in the week.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the strikes and cautioned airlines and passengers against using Saudi Arabian airports and airspace.
The Houthis have said they were targeting Saudi Arabia over its backing of government forces in Yemen’s civil war, and over an air strike on the airport in Sanaa.
Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition, said air defences had intercepted a missile near the Riyadh airport while authorities worked to bring the fire under control.
UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting indicated that Britain could “potentially” offer Saudi Arabia more support. US President Donald Trump said Washington would “make a decision” and “move very quickly” on whether to carry out strikes against the Houthis.
Saturday’s attack was the deadliest single strike on a Gulf Arab country since the war between Israel, the US and Iran began in February.
The Saudi civil aviation authority said the dead included four Saudi nationals, two people from Bangladesh and one person each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt. The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that an Indian man had died from injuries sustained in the attack.
The Houthis said they had targeted the airport over the past 24 hours with a combination of ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones.
Their military spokesman, Brig Gen Yahya Saree, pledged to continue “escalating operations deep inside Saudi Arabia”. He warned that Saudi airports were “potential targets and sites for operations by our forces”, with the exception of those in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
The UK Foreign Office is advising against all travel to parts of Saudi Arabia, including areas within 10km (6.2 miles) of the border with Yemen, and other western embassies have warned their nationals over travel in the region.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said he was “appalled” by the attack.
The Saudi-led coalition vowed to respond to Saturday’s strike, describing it as a “war crime” and blaming the Houthis.
Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said “the Saudi enemy” had launched an air strike on Sanaa International Airport in Yemen’s capital. Saudi Arabia has not confirmed the attack and the BBC has been unable to verify the claim.
Abdullah Al-Alimi Bawazir, vice-president of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, called for “decisive actions” from regional and international partners.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attacks and confirmed that a US citizen had been killed in the strikes.
Asked whether the US intended to conduct strikes on the Houthis, Trump said it may, adding: “We’re going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”
Riyadh’s airport was struck on Thursday in an attack that killed three Saudi nationals. The Houthis claimed responsibility and said they had used cruise missiles against the facility.
Two other deadly attacks on Saudi airports, in Abha and Riyadh, took place in the two days before that.
The recent surge in violence follows the collapse in July of a temporary ceasefire between the Houthis and Saudi-led forces that had been brokered in 2022.
The conflict worsened after the Houthis captured strategically important stretches of the Red Sea coast in a rapid offensive, which triggered Saudi strikes. Yemeni pro-government forces later said they had secured those regions.
The Houthis now control roughly a quarter of Yemeni territory and as much as 80% of the country’s population. The Iran-backed armed group hopes to eventually seize complete control.
Saudi Arabia fears that outcome would create an Iranian satellite state on its southern border.
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