Last Updated on October 11, 2026 1:05 pm by INDIAN AWAAZ
AMN / NEWS DESK
At least 12 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in an attack on Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade, as the Iran-backed Houthis escalate a campaign they launched this year.
The dead from the third attack this week on the airport included four Saudis, two people from Bangladesh and one person each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt, the Saudi civil aviation authority said. At the latest count, 309 were wounded, officials said.
In a statement, General Authority of Civil Aviation GACA said the dead included four Saudi citizens as well as two Bangladeshi nationals, a Palestinian, a US citizen, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian and a Sudanese.
“The attack also left (309) others injured, including individuals in critical condition,” the statement said.
Hours after the attack, the spokesman for the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen announced that the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia’s main eastern airport, also came under attack. Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki announced the incident in a post on X.
It was the first time King Fahd International Airport, one of the Kingdom’s busiest transport hubs, had been targetted since the Iran war erupted on Feb. 28.
Following the attack on KKIA on Saturday, GACA said operations at the airport were temporarily suspended while an assessment of the damage was being carried out.
“This attack comes amidst ongoing blatant assaults targeting civil aviation facilities in the Kingdom,” the authority said.
Accodring to Arab News at least 291 flights at the Riyadh airport had been canceled over the past 24 hours, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Before the latest attack, Air India, FlyDubai, Lufthansa Group and Pakistan International Airlines were among airlines suspending flights to and from Riyadh and other Saudi airports for varying periods.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency had expanded its guidance on Saudi airspace, noting the Houthis’ ability to strike targets deeper inside the kingdom, including Riyadh, and a “greater focus on aviation infrastructure.”
The missile and drone attacks and interception efforts “create an increased risk of misidentification of civil aircraft,” it said.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said those who had been unable to reach their destinations in the Kingdom from abroad because of the disruption should contact the Saudi missions in the countries where they are located to request assistance.
King Khalid International Airport earlier advised passengers to contact their airlines before traveling to the airport.
President Donald Trump said Washington was considering joining Saudi strikes on the Houthis in the conflict, a spillover from the war on Iran that the US and Israel launched in February.
Hospitals were flooded with wounded brought by ambulance and helicopter, some in critical condition after the attack, which occurred without warning.