At least twelve dead, more than 300 injured in attack on Riyadh airport blamed on Houthis

This is the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade. At least 12 people were killed and 309 injured in a missile strike against Riyadh airport on Saturday (October 10). “The attack which targeted King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday (...) left 12 dead, including four Saudi nationals, two Bangladeshis, an American, an Egyptian, an Argentinian, a Syrian, a Palestinian and a Sudanese,” the civil aviation authority said in a statement on Sunday. The Quai d'Orsay subsequently announced that a French woman was among those injured.

The military coalition led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, in support of the country's internationally recognized government, accused its opponents the Houthis, pro-Iranian Yemeni fighters, of being responsible for this attack, denouncing "a war crime" to which it will respond "firmly".

Operations were suspended at the airport and the Saudi Ministry of Education ordered schools in Riyadh to teach remotely for a week. Doctors were urgently called to hospitals in the capital to treat the injured.

Washington is closely monitoring the situation

The coalition also announced, in the evening, the fall of a projectile near Dammam airport, in the east of the kingdom. This airport is, with that of Jeddah, one of the alternatives to Riyadh airport. Another projectile was intercepted southeast of the capital. Pro-Iranian fighters in Yemen had already claimed responsibility for strikes on the airport on Wednesday and Thursday, which left six dead: three Saudis, including a pilot, on Thursday, and an Egyptian, an Algerian and a Sudanese on Wednesday.

On Sunday, a Houthi military spokesman renewed the rebel group's call for travelers, employees and all airlines not to use Saudi airports, threatening them with further strikes, "with the exception" of those in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

The scale and frequency of attacks targeting Riyadh in recent days are unprecedented since 2014 and the start of the war in Yemen pitting the Houthis against Yemeni government forces. The new attack "constitutes a serious escalation", declared the UN envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, accusing the Houthis. “What happened in Saudi Arabia is not acceptable,” responded US President Donald Trump on Saturday evening, adding that he would speak with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Asked by the press about the possibility of intervention earlier on Saturday, Donald Trump replied: "It's possible. We will examine the question. We have just learned of this recent attack [in Riyadh], so we will make a decision. We are acting very quickly."