Houthi strike on Riyadh Airport Kills 12, wounds hundreds
Supporters of the Houthi authorities brandish their weapons during a protest against Saudi intervention in Yemen, in Sanaa, on October 9, 2026. The Houthis, who are fighting the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, seized the coastline alongside crucial trade route during a lightning offensive last month, extending their control over all of Yemen's Red Sea coast. Yemeni government forces have been attempting for several days to retake coastal territory captured by the pro-Iranian fighters. (
The deadliest strike on Saudi soil in more than a decade killed 12 people at Riyadh’s international airport and wounded hundreds, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to vow on Sunday a decisive response against Yemen’s Houthis.
The coalition blamed the Iran-backed group for the strike on King Khalid International Airport, describing it as a “full-fledged war crime” that a diplomatic source attributed to a missile. The attack came during an unprecedented wave of Houthi strikes on the kingdom since a truce in the group’s long-running war with Yemen’s Riyadh-backed government unravelled in July.
The spiralling violence has raised the possibility of a wider escalation, with US President Donald Trump signalling Washington could join military action against the fighters. One passenger told AFP they witnessed a strike in the airport’s domestic terminal. “I was on gate 403,” the witness said. “I saw 401 hit, I saw injured in front of my eyes. Everyone was running.”
Four Saudi citizens were among those killed in the attack, as well as two Bangladeshis, one US citizen, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese, the kingdom’s civil aviation authority said in a statement.
