Saudi authorities suspended operations at Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday after a fresh attack there left multiple people wounded.
The situation prompted health officials to activate a rare mass call-up of doctors to deal with the “serious emergency”, a medical source said, while foreign embassies warned their citizens to avoid the facility.
The Saudi civil aviation authority confirmed an attack had injured several people at the sprawling King Khalid International Airport, with a diplomatic source attributing it to a missile fired by Yemen‘s Houthis.
The Iran-backed group has repeatedly targeted the facility, claiming a series of strikes on Thursday that killed three people and damaged a plane, though they did not announce any new attacks on Saturday.
Read moreDiplomats take shelter in Saudi capital as Yemen’s Houthis target Riyadh airport
A witness at the airport reported hearing an explosion while waiting to board a flight, and another said they saw a strike that left people wounded and fleeing in panic.
“I was on gate 403” at the domestic terminal, the witness told AFP. “I saw 401 hit, I saw injured in front of my eyes. Everyone was running.”
A medical source told AFP that the health ministry had ordered ER doctors to report to hospitals around the capital to treat the wounded on Saturday.
“We were told we are dealing with a ‘serious emergency situation’. Injured are being moved to hospitals across Riyadh”, with many in critical condition, the source said.
The Houthis have repeatedly attacked Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers after a truce in their long-running war with Yemen’s Riyadh-backed government unravelled in July.
Houthis claim new attack on Riyadh airport as fighting continues in Yemen
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Admissions by Saudi authorities of strikes hitting civilian targets are relatively rare, with officials issuing few statements on Houthi attacks in recent weeks.
The aviation authority said the number of injured from Saturday’s attack was still being assessed, adding airport “operations had been temporarily suspended pending the completion of an assessment of the damage and verification of the safety of the facilities”.
A source at a local hospital said five people were in intensive care there after being wounded at the airport, with “dozens of people injured” in all.
A relative of one wounded person said they had been hit in the shoulders and arms by shattered glass.
Three witnesses confirmed people being evacuated from the airport. Two doctors told AFP that several pilgrims headed to Mecca had been injured while waiting to board their flight.
A diplomatic source briefed on the matter told AFP the airport was hit by “a missile around 3:00pm” (1200 GMT).
“Houthis are attacking civilian targets. Riyadh airport is a civilian target,” the source said.
Embassy warnings
The Yemen conflict flared back to life after a four-year, UN-brokered truce collapsed, months into a wider Middle Eastern war that has rocked the region and roiled energy supplies and markets.
The scale and frequency of the recent strikes targeting Riyadh are unprecedented in the eight months of war in the region.
Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that supports Yemen’s government militarily, and has found itself drawn deeper into its impoverished neighbour’s civil war.
Both Riyadh and the Houthis have signalled a willingness to keep fighting rather than pursue diplomacy.
The US embassy in Saudi Arabia said it was “aware of attacks” on Riyadh airport on Saturday and called on American citizens to avoid the area.
The Canadian, German and Spanish embassies also warned their citizens to avoid the facility. Spain’s embassy, in a message on X, alerted nationals to a “new attack… by the Houthis”.
A senior Western diplomat told AFP that several embassies “indicated that they had decided to prohibit their staffs’ travel to/from Riyadh Airport over the next week as a prudential step”. Near the airport, passengers carrying luggage could be seen standing on the pavement at a metro station.
Read moreYemen says advancing against Houthis around key Bab al-Mandab strait
Yemen fighting
Meanwhile, in Yemen, Saudi-supported government forces were advancing against the Houthis in areas they captured last month around the Bab al-Mandab strait, military sources told AFP.
The Yemeni government last week announced a counter-offensive aimed at retaking all areas held by the Houthis, after the group seized the country’s entire western coastline in a lightning offensive.
The Houthis confirmed that government forces had attacked in the Bab al-Mandab area – a key chokepoint for Red Sea oil and cargo shipping – but they claimed to have repelled the assault.
Claims by the warring parties have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation moving fast on the ground and access for journalists difficult.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
