CAIRO — A projectile struck a passenger terminal at the international airport in Riyadh on Sunday, a day after a missile hit the same terminal and killed 12 people, the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said. The Houthis claimed responsibility for those attacks and others.
Saudi authorities said there were injuries in the latest attack on the King Khalid International Airport complex for terminals 3 and 4 for domestic flights. Saturday’s missile attack was the deadliest in a gulf Arab nation since the Iran war began, with 300 other people wounded, some critically. The airport was still closed Sunday.
The sharp escalation in the new front in the Iran war threatens to draw in greater U.S. military involvement, as President Trump has said he is weighing joining the fight against the Houthis. There was no immediate White House comment Sunday.
The latest strike in Riyadh came shortly after the Houthis said the airport in the rebel-held Yemeni capital of Sanaa had been struck again, and blamed the Saudis.
At stake, again, in this escalation are global supplies and prices of oil as well as commercial shipping through a crucial alternative waterway to the Iran-threatened Strait of Hormuz — along with civilians and aviation throughout the region.
Trump to speak to Saudi crown prince
Trump on Saturday also said he planned to speak with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been seeking assistance.
A U.S. intervention could prompt the Houthis to halt shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea off Yemen and further restrict the flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf. The rebels seized key areas along the strait last month and the Saudi-led coalition has been trying to seize them back.
Saudi Arabia is running low on missile interceptors and has asked France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt to deploy air defense support to the region, regional officials told the Associated Press last month, with one noting that the U.S. has seen its own stock dwindle during the war with Iran.
Sunday’s attack occurred as the Saudis hosted a major international energy conference in Riyadh, with other high-profile events including an investment gathering on the horizon. Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed has sought to open more to the world as a business and tourism destination, but the Houthi attacks threaten those efforts.
“There is no way that somebody will break our back. We are like a phoenix, we come out of the ashes all the time,” the Saudi energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, said at the conference.
He added that the kingdom is also working on pipelines in addition to the East-West pipeline that was attacked and closed for days last month, with no details.
Houthis target air, military and oil facilities
Earlier Sunday, the Houthi-run Health Ministry in Yemen said a child was killed and six people wounded in a suspected Saudi airstrike on a house in Sanaa. The ministry also said 91 Yemenis have been killed by the Saudi-led coalition in five weeks, 60% of them women and children.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities on the claims.
On Sunday, the Houthis also claimed attacks on King Fahd Airport in the Saudi city of Damma, as well as oil and gas facilities in the kingdom’s east. They have targeted the Riyadh airport, which has no military facilities, every day since Wednesday.
The rebels again warned “all airlines, experts, employees, workers and travelers against using Saudi airports and airspace, as they are vulnerable to attack and have become a theater of operations for our forces.” Several international airlines have suspended flights for varying periods.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the group’s military spokesperson, wrote on X that airports in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, however, were exempt. The kingdom earlier called Mecca a “red line.”
Deadly airport attack
A Saudi statement said the dead in Saturday’s attack included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, a Palestinian, a U.S. citizen, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian and a Sudanese.
The Egyptian woman was a flight attendant identified as Azza Ramzy, who worked for Saudi airline Flynas, according to Egyptian state-run TV.
The Syrian woman was a widowed mother of four who had been living in Saudi Arabia for five years, relative Nisreen Oweida told the Associated Press. The Syrian Embassy identified her as Buthaina Ahmad Oweida.
Iran’s role
Until recently, the Houthis had been largely on the sidelines of the Iran war, but they have developed their military capabilities in recent years to become one of Tehran’s most powerful allies. Now, the rebels are helping Iran to pressure a key U.S. ally.
The Saudis and the Houthis began fighting in 2015, when Saudi Arabia entered Yemen’s civil war on behalf of the internationally recognized government. Relative calm after a 2022 ceasefire ended in July when the Houthis resumed attacks, saying the Saudis fired on the Sanaa airport as a plane from Iran was trying to land.
That revived anger over the Saudi-led blockade that has largely isolated Houthi-run areas. The Houthis say they have now imposed a blockade on Saudi Arabia.
Fighting has escalated, with the Saudi-led coalition providing air support for Yemeni government forces attempting to reverse recent Houthi gains near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been attacking ships.
But Ahmed Nagi, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Yemen, said the Houthi pressure tactics could backfire. “Rather than pushing Riyadh to step back, attacks on critical Saudi infrastructure could make the Saudis more determined to continue the campaign,” he said.
Magdy, Frankel and Anna write for the Associated Press. Frankel and Anna reported from Jerusalem. AP writers Victoria Eastwood in Cairo, Collin Binkley in Washington, Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut and Omar Albam in Maarat al-Numan, Syria, contributed to this report.
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