Riyadh airport hit by fresh Houthi strike day after deadly attack

RIYADH - A fresh Houthi strike hit Riyadh’s international airport on Oct 11, a day after another attack claimed by the Yemeni group killed at least a dozen people and forced the authorities to suspend operations there.

The attack on Oct 10, the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade, was a sharp escalation in the Yemen war, where Riyadh backs the internationally recognised government against the Houthis.

The Iran-backed group on Oct 11 claimed multiple attacks over the last 24 hours, including on the airport, and threatened to keep targeting the kingdom’s transit hubs, calling them “a theatre of operations for our forces”.

Hours later, the Saudi coalition fighting the group reported that a projectile struck King Khalid International Airport, sparking a fire. Air defences also intercepted a missile nearby, it added.

AFP journalists and locals reported hearing the sound of multiple blasts in the Saudi capital on Oct 11.

“The birds went into a frenzy after the sound. The whole house shook,” said one resident of the Al-Aarid neighbourhood in the north of the city.

The civil aviation authority said the attack caused an unspecified number of injuries, and that a damage assessment was under way.

It later reported another attack on Dammam airport in the east – which the Houthis also said they had targeted – a day after the Saudi coalition reported a projectile landing nearby.

‘Full-fledged war crime’

The Houthis have stepped up their attacks on the Riyadh airport – where three people were also killed on Oct 8 – as well as on Saudi oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.

Although Saudi Arabia has poured billions into its military, Houthi attacks continue to slip through.

“Saudi air defences have been able to intercept some Houthi missile and drone attacks, but Saudi Arabia is so large that it’s simply impossible for them to consistently defend themselves against Houthi attacks,” said Thomas Juneau, security analyst at Ottawa University.

The anti-Houthi coalition called the attack on Oct 10 a “full-fledged war crime” and vowed to “respond decisively”.

Houthi media reported two Saudi strikes in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled Sanaa governorate on Oct 11.

The attack on Oct 10 drew condemnation from the United Nations and leaders around the world, including US President Donald Trump, who said he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country does not have diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, also denounced the “horrific terrorist attack”.

Four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese were killed, the civil aviation authority said, with 309 wounded.

The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia also said one of its citizens died on Oct 11 after being wounded the day before.

Operations suspended

The authorities suspended operations at the airport into Oct 11, a senior aviation source said, with air traffic monitor Flightradar24 saying the closure was extended until 9pm GMT (5am on Oct 12, Singapore time).

A second aviation source confirmed the halt in operations “until further notice”, adding radar and communications equipment was damaged and runways needed to be assessed.

Witnesses to the strike on Oct 10 described chaos in the aftermath.

“People who were in Terminal 3 started running towards us,” a 32-year-old Riyadh resident told AFP.

“Some had lost a hand or an arm. People were running while carrying injured people, covered in blood.”

The attack prompted health officials to activate a rare mass call-up of doctors, a medical source said.

The US, Canadian, German and Spanish embassies in Saudi Arabia have warned their citizens to avoid Riyadh airport, while Australia urged its citizens on Oct 11 to stay indoors altogether and “shelter in place”.

‘Rewrite the rules’

Oct 10’s airport strike, on the eve of Saudi Arabia’s high-profile convention and entertainment season, was the deadliest attack in the kingdom since a 2015 suicide bombing.

With the summer heat subsiding, October also usually marks the beginning of the high season for Umrah pilgrims, with millions of Muslims from across the world flocking to Mecca.

Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has supported Yemen’s government militarily since 2015, including by seeking to exert control over Yemeni airspace and the airport in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

Ottawa University’s Juneau said the Houthis now want “want to rewrite the rules of the game”.

“They want to do to Saudi Arabia what Saudi Arabia does to them,” he said. “So if their airport in Sanaa has to be closed because of the Saudi air embargo, they want to do the same thing to Saudi Arabia.”

On the ground in Yemen, Saudi-supported government forces were advancing in their counter-offensive against the Houthis around the Bab al-Mandab strait, a key shipping route, military sources said on Oct 10.

The Houthis claimed to have repelled them.

Claims by both sides have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation moving fast on the ground and access for journalists difficult. AFP