Saudi Arabia Weighs Options After 12 Civilians Killed, 309 Travelers Injured in Houthi Attack on Riyadh Airport

Riyadh’s airport was hit again Sunday while closed for an investigation into an attack a day earlier that killed 12, including one American, and injured 309. “An assault with an unknown projectile on Passenger Hall No. 4 at King Khalid International Airport,” Saudi Air Force officer and spokesman of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, Major General Turki Al-Malki, posted on X late Sunday afternoon Saudi time. He reported that local responders were responding to a fire that resulted from the attack.‘Air defenses intercepted and destroyed a loitering (cruise) missile in the vicinity of King Khalid International Airport,” General Al-Malki added.Condolences and condemnations were already pouring in on Sunday after a Houthi attack on the airport on Saturday forced its closure pending investigation. Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation shut down the airport to conduct damage assessments and safety inspections. Saturday’s missile strike was the third attack on the airport in a week, with previous strikes targeting the airport’s facilities and an airplane. Saudi Arabia’s government announced that schools at the capital would conduct remote classes.Countries across the globe offered words of solidarity to the Saudis after the drone strike. “We stand with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its people and extend our condolences to the victims and their families,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday. “These reprehensible attacks represent a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life. They must stop now.”Poland’s foreign ministry called the attack a war crime and flagrant violation of international law that attempts to further destabilize the Gulf region. The United Nations’ secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said he was “deeply shocked” by the targeting of civilians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also offered condolences, noting that “terrorism targets innocent people and seeks to spread fear and instability. It must be confronted with resolve.”The U.S. Embassy at Riyadh issued a security alert telling all staff and civilians to avoid the Riyadh airport as well as two others at Jeddah and Dammam and urged American citizens to “take extreme caution when using all major airports in Saudi Arabia.”“ U.S. government employees working in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to travel within 20 miles of the Yemen border due to safety risks and need special authorization for travel to the provinces of Jizan, Asir, Najran, and the cities of Qatif, Yanbu, and Taif,” reads a statement from the embassy.The bombing of a civilian target, the latest attack on the Saudi kingdom by Iran’s proxy force in Yemen, is forcing the government to evaluate its response in a decade-long battle. The Houthis did not take credit for the attack though the strike is the latest in an ongoing battle that has escalated in recent months with Houthi strikes on infrastructure at the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which the Saudis have been using to reroute oil exports from the Strait of Hormuz. On Sunday, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting agency said that the Yemeni Armed Forces declared that any “airlines wishing to fly to Riyadh Airport must first obtain permission from the Yemeni Armed Forces.”Saudi Arabia recently increased its response to attacks on Saudi installations. General Al-Malki said Friday that the group, which includes the UAE, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain, destroyed 136 military targets in areas under the control of the Houthis. He added that the coalition will “respond decisively” to the airport bombing.After the airport attack, Pakistan, a member of the Mecca Defense Pact, offered moral, if not material, support, while the Gulf Cooperation Council member nation Qatar said Sunday it would back “all legitimate measures” to safeguard the kingdom’s “sovereignty, security, territorial integrity, and interests.’ Despite the overwhelming expressions of solidarity, Saudi Arabia has not managed to decisively defeat the Iranian proxy on its southern flank, even while maintaining overwhelming advantages in military power, air capability, and money. After the airport attack but before the casualties were reported, President Trump said Saturday that the United States is weighing how to assist Saudi Arabia in a response. The head of the Sana’a Center, a Yemeni think tank, Maged Almadjhaji said the Houthis’ relatively cheap drone technology, along with Iran’s expertise in asymmetrical warfare, shows that it is willing to wait out its opponents’ desire to avoid escalation. That buys the Iranians time to rebuild their destructive capabilities while making greater demands and changing the political terms. The repeated toll on civilian infrastructure raises “the cost of Saudi decisions” and disrupts confidence in the country’s security, he added. “Temporary calm can therefore come at the price of a growing future threat,” Mr. Almadjhaji posted on X. “The Houthis act with the audacity of a gambler who knows their opponent has much to protect. … Everything their opponents seek to protect then becomes, in Houthi calculations, another means of controlling their decisions.”

Saudi Arabia Weighs Options After 12 Civilians Killed, 309 Travelers Injured in Houthi Attack on Riyadh Airport

Saudi Arabia Weighs Options After 12 Civilians Killed, 309 Travelers Injured in Houthi Attack on Riyadh Airport

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