Riyadh airport hit again by fresh Houthi strike

A fresh Houthi strike on Sunday hit Riyadh’s international airport, killing one person and wounding 11 others, a day after a deadly attack claimed by the Yemeni group forced authorities to suspend operations there.

Saturday’s attack, the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade, was a sharp escalation in the Yemen war, where Riyadh has long militarily supported the internationally recognized government against the Houthis.

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

The King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh is hit by a Houthi strike on Saturday.

Photo: the Saudi Ministry of Media via AFP

Hours later, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the group reported that a projectile struck King Khalid International Airport, sparking a fire.

Air defenses also intercepted a missile nearby, it added.

The fresh attack on the airport killed one person — a Pakistani resident — and wounded 11 others, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said on social media.

“The attack also caused property damage, the extent of which is currently being assessed,” it said.

Authorities have extended the closure of the airport by 24 hours, the tracking site Flightradar24 said on social media.

Multiple blasts were heard in the Saudi capital on Sunday.

“The birds went into a frenzy after the sound. The whole house shook,” a resident said.

The civil aviation authority also 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.

Shortly afterward, the coalition reported shooting down a drone, also in the east.

It said early yesterday that it had also “intercepted and destroyed” a Houthi ballistic missile heading for the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait, home to a major military base.