Yemen’s Houthis issued a new threat to Saudi Arabia’s airspace on Sunday after a attack on the kingdom’s international airport in Riyadh, at least 12 people were killed, including a US citizen, and hundreds more were injured. Hours later, a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said a projectile had hit a passenger terminal at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.
There were no immediate details on the latest strike, which hit the same complex housing Terminals 3 and 4 for domestic flights.
Saturday’s airport strike, the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade, marked a major escalation in the war between Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis and the kingdom and further complicated efforts to end the war. US-Iranian War.
The airport remains closed on Sunday and Saudi Arabia has moved Riyadh’s schools online amid the latest threat from the Houthis. Flights were diverted elsewhere, tracker Flightradar24 said. Countries including the United States, Britain, Germany, Australia and Canada have warned their citizens to avoid the airport.
While the Houthis did not immediately claim responsibility for Saturday’s deadly strike, they threatened further attacks on the kingdom’s airports, with the exception of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina, warning passengers not to travel.
“Airports and airspace are exposed to targeted fire and constitute a theater of operations for our forces,” said Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General. General Yahya Saree, wrote about
He urged “everyone to take our warnings seriously.”
On Sunday, the Houthis said the airport under their control in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa had been struck again. They blamed the Saudis but provided no details.
The attack on Riyadh’s airport on Saturday drew condemnation from the United Nations and world leaders, including President Trump, who said he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis.
“The United States strongly condemns recent attacks by Houthi terrorists against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including today’s attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport that claimed the lives of many innocent people, including a U.S. citizen,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a social media post.
A State Department spokesperson told CBS News that the Trump administration is in close contact with its “Saudi partners.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said attacks by Iran’s proxies are “pushing the region into a spiral of violence.”
“They are destabilizing crucial global transport and energy nodes,” she wrote on X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the attack on King Khalid Airport and offered his condolences.
“Terrorism targets innocent people and seeks to sow fear and instability. It must be confronted with determination,” he said in a statement shared on
The attack hit an airport complex housing Terminals 3 and 4 for domestic flights, a regional official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The Saudi statement said the dead included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, one Palestinian, one American citizen, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian and one Sudanese. Several hospitals were treating the 309 injured, some of whom were in serious condition.
The Egyptian woman was a flight attendant identified as Azza Ramzy, 28, who worked for Saudi airline Flynas, according to Egyptian state television Al-Qahera News.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for attacks earlier in the week on King Khalid International Airport that killed three Saudis, including a pilot. The airport does not have military installations.
The surge in attacks, including on other Saudi airports, military installations and oil infrastructure, comes a week after a Saudi-led coalition launched a major military offensive against the Houthis.
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