By Timour Azhari and Enas Alashray
RIYADH, Oct 10 (Reuters) – At least 12 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in an attack on Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade, as the Iran-backed Houthis escalate a campaign they launched this summer.
The dead from the third attack this week on the airport included four Saudis, two people from Bangladesh and one person each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt, the Saudi civil aviation authority said. At the latest count, 309 were wounded, officials said.
President Donald Trump said Washington was considering joining Saudi strikes on the Houthis in the conflict, a spillover from the war on Iran that the US and Israel launched in February.
Hospitals were flooded with wounded brought by ambulance and helicopter, some in critical condition after the attack, which occurred without warning.
CONFLICT ESCALATES AFTER YEMEN WAR CEASEFIRE UNRAVELS
The two previous attacks on King Khalid International Airport this week killed four and caused heavy damage to a Saudi commercial plane parked on the tarmac. The strikes have exposed vulnerabilities in Saudi defence capabilities as it wages an air campaign against the Houthis to support a ground war by the Yemeni government against the Iran-backed group.
The Houthis have not claimed responsibility for the attack, but a Saudi-led military coalition vowed to respond.
Trump, asked whether the US planned to join Saudi strikes on the Houthis, told reporters: “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.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attacks on the airport, saying they “demonstrate a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned Saturday’s strike, reiterating that attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international law and must cease immediately.
Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government have claimed hundreds of strikes on targets in Houthi-held territory. The Houthis have said these killed civilians including women and children. Reuters could not independently verify those claims.
The Saudis entered the Yemen war in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition to try to force the Houthis out of the Yemeni capital Sanaa. The war became a bloody stalemate, with hundreds of thousands of Yemenis killed by fighting and famine.
A 2022 ceasefire reached by the Saudis and the Houthis unravelled this summer, culminating in a lightning Houthi advance that took the Red Sea chokepoint of Bab el-Mandeb from Saudi-backed government forces.
EXPLOSION, PEOPLE ON GROUND, AMBULANCES RUSHING
The Saudi-backed Yemeni government began an offensive this week to try to retake that territory, but it has made only slow gains, even as the Houthis put the country’s third-largest city, Taiz, under siege.
On Saturday, all flights were diverted from Riyadh and operations at the airport that serves a city of 8 million people were suspended, the Saudi civil aviation authority said.
The head of the Houthi media office posted on X that the group had “shut down Riyadh international airport”. The Houthis have said airliners should avoid Saudi airspace, declaring it a zone of military operations.
The Houthis have warned international airlines against operating flights through Saudi airspace, saying it has become a theatre of their military operations, with the exception of airspace over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
An eyewitness at the airport reported seeing an explosion and then multiple people lying injured on the ground inside. More than a dozen ambulances were seen rushing towards the facility. A video verified by Reuters showed ambulances at the airport.
An injured traveller told Reuters they saw something fly across the sky outside the airport before part of the ceiling near a departure gate collapsed.
The US embassy in Riyadh said it “strongly recommends all US citizens avoid this airport and surrounding areas.”
Earlier Houthi attacks had prompted a number of carriers to suspend or cancel services to the Saudi capital, shortly before Riyadh is due to host major energy and investment conferences. Organizers of those conferences said ahead of the strikes on Saturday they would go ahead as planned.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari in Riyadh; Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Washington; Writing by Enas Alashray, Maya Gebeily and Ann Saphir; Editing by Gareth Jones, Joe Bavier, David Gregorio and William Mallard)
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