Missile strike at Riyadh airport kills 12 and injures more than 300

A missile strike on Riyadh King Khalid International Airport killed 12 people and injured 309, according to Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation. Hospitals across the capital were treating the injured, some of them in critical condition.

The authority said the missile was launched from Houthi-held territory in Yemen and appeared to have hit Terminal 3 directly. Footage described as showing the impact and its aftermath circulated on social media. Its authenticity was not confirmed.

Flights were suspended immediately after the strike. The ban was later extended to at least midnight on October 12, 2026, local time.

Two days earlier, two separate strikes on the same airport killed three Saudi nationals, among them a Saudia captain, and badly damaged a Saudia aircraft of the Airbus A320 family parked at a gate. No passengers were on board.

The Houthis had launched missile attacks on other Saudi infrastructure in the days before, including Abha International Airport in the southwest, and threatened to target the kingdom's oil pipelines and export terminals. The strikes came as Saudi and allied forces began a counter-offensive aimed at recovering territory the Houthis had taken in recent advances in southwestern Yemen.