At least 12 people were killed and 309 injured in an attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday, according to Saudi civil aviation authorities. The dead included four Saudis, two Bangladeshi nationals, and one person each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt.
A Saudi-led military coalition blamed the attack on Yemen's Houthis and called it a "war crime." The Houthis have not commented on Saturday's strike but claimed responsibility for separate attacks on the same airport on Thursday that killed three people and damaged a plane.
Operations at King Khalid International Airport have been suspended. The Saudi civil aviation authority said some injured remained in critical condition. An eyewitness in the domestic terminal reported seeing gate 401 hit and "injured people in front of my eyes." More than a dozen ambulances rushed to the airport.
Major General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said the attack on a passenger terminal caused deaths and injuries among civilian passengers and airport staff. He described it as a "full-fledged war crime."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the recent attacks and confirmed an American citizen was killed. When asked if the US would join strikes against the Houthis, President Donald Trump said: "We may. We're going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we'll make a decision. We move very quickly."
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the attacks a "violation of international law" that "must cease immediately." Egypt, Palestine and Qatar also condemned the strikes.
Western embassies warned their citizens to avoid the airport. The UK Foreign Office told British nationals to stay away "until the airport is secure." Several Gulf airlines cancelled flights to and from Riyadh.
This was the deadliest attack on Saudi Arabia since May 2015. The Houthis, backed by Iran and controlling most of Yemen, say they are targeting Saudi Arabia over its support for Yemeni government forces. A temporary ceasefire brokered in 2022 began unraveling in July when the Houthis announced a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia and resumed missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and Red Sea tankers.