Houthi Strikes Hit Riyadh Airport Three Times in One Week

Yemen's Houthis launched a missile attack on Riyadh's international airport on Oct. 10, the third strike on the airport in one week The Guardian.

A hospital source said five people were in intensive care after being wounded at the airport, with dozens more injured. One witness waiting to board a flight reported hearing an explosion. Another witness at gate 403 in the domestic terminal said gate 401 was hit and described injured people in front of them, with everyone running. Witnesses said people were evacuated. Saudi authorities did not confirm a new attack or an evacuation.

The two earlier attacks that week left four people dead, wounded others, and badly damaged an aircraft. Saudi authorities said Thursday's attacks killed three Saudi nationals Reuters. Saudi Arabia later reopened the airport. The dozens wounded had injuries ranging from minor to severe.

The Houthis said Thursday they had targeted two civilian airports, Riyadh airport and Najran Airport CNN. Smoke and flames rose from King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. Witnesses told The Associated Press they heard several explosions in Riyadh on Thursday. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted three Houthi ballistic missiles, long-range weapons that climb high before falling fast. Saudi Press Agency reported an attack on King Khalid International Airport caused casualties, and in a separate dispatch reported attacks on King Khalid and Abha airports caused deaths and injuries among citizens and residents. Saudi envoy Alwasil told the U.N. Security Council that the Houthis carried out two attacks Thursday that struck airport facilities Saudi Press Agency.

Those strikes on airports, oil facilities and tankers followed the unraveling in July of a truce, a formal pause in fighting, between the Houthis and Yemen's Riyadh-backed government.

The broader context here is a shift from a contained truce to strikes on flight hubs and energy shipments. Stopping salvo fire, several missiles fired together, is like trying to catch several fastballs at once and tests interception rates. The open questions are when to close and reopen a large hub, whether Security Council talks can restore deconfliction, basic channels to avoid accidental clashes, and why injuries inside a terminal change the risk for insurers, carriers and airport managers compared with hits on runways or fuel sites.