King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh has come under another deadly attack just one day after a Houthi strike killed 12 people and injured 309 at the facility. The latest attack on Sunday killed a Pakistani national and injured 11 others, according to Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA).
An unidentified projectile struck Terminal 4 of the airport, sparking a fire, Major General Turki Al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, told reporters on Sunday.
“The Coalition also intercepted and destroyed a cruise missile in the vicinity of the airport,” he added.
The GACA said the injured were taken to the hospital for treatment, and the extent of the damage to the airport is still being assessed. The latest casualties bring the combined toll from the two attacks to 13 dead and 320 injured.
The airport has remained closed since Saturday’s deadly attack, which killed four Saudi citizens and eight foreign nationals, including two Bangladeshis and one each from the US, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, and Sudan. Some of the injured were reported to be in critical condition.
العربية تعرض لقطات من لحظات الاعتداء على مطار الرياض يوم أمس https://t.co/mQYJiki0m1
Yemen’s Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah, claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack on Riyadh airport, as well as strikes that it said it carried out on an airport in Dammam in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, and two facilities of Saudi oil giant Aramco.
The Saudi authorities did not immediately confirm the claimed strikes on the oil facilities. The Houthis did not claim responsibility for Sunday’s strike on Riyadh airport, but issued new warnings to airlines and travelers against using Saudi airports. The group warned that the situation will only get worse unless Riyadh ends its interference in Yemen.
The developments come amid a sharp escalation in fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition, which has backed Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the group since intervening in the country’s civil war in 2015.
Large-scale hostilities largely subsided following a UN-brokered truce in 2022, but fighting flared up again this summer after Saudi-backed Yemeni forces bombed an airport in the Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa, reportedly to prevent a delegation returning from Iran from landing.
In recent weeks, the Iranian-backed Houthi movement has made major territorial gains in southwestern Yemen, expanding control along the Red Sea coast and around the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The narrow waterway, which links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, is one of the world’s most important shipping routes. The Houthis have also expanded their presence on islands in the Red Sea.
Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have since launched a counteroffensive aimed at reversing the Houthi advances. Earlier this week, they reportedly recaptured the market and security headquarters in Al-Masrakh district of Taiz province, according to local media.
Saudi Arabia has intensified its bombing campaign in support of the government offensive. The Houthis claimed that Saudi warplanes carried out 124 airstrikes over a 24-hour period, targeting Sanaa and the group’s northern stronghold of Saada.
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