This screen grab taken from CCTV footage released by the Saudi Media Ministry on October 11, 2026, shows the moment King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was hit by a Houthi strike
| Photo Credit: AFP

The airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, was attacked again on Saturday (October 10, 2026) and evacuated, two regional officials said, just days after three Saudi citizens, including a pilot, were killed as the kingdom faces an extraordinary series of assaults in the new front in the Iran war.

President Donald Trump told reporters he was evaluating whether the U.S. should join Saudi strikes against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen who have claimed this week’s attacks on King Khalid International Airport as well as other Saudi airports, military facilities and oil infrastructure.

“We may. We’re going to look at it,” Mr. Trump said. “We just found out about the recent attack. So we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”

In the latest attack, a missile struck a complex housing terminals 3 and 4 for domestic flights at the Riyadh airport and many people were wounded, one of the regional officials said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to speak to the media. Ambulances were seen rushing there.

The surge in attacks has come in the week since a Saudi-led coalition launched a major military offensive against the Houthis. There was no immediate Houthi statement on Saturday (October 10, 2026).

Saudi civil aviation authorities said operations at the airport had been suspended and the number of wounded and damage were being assessed. The airport had a heavy police presence, with all entrances blocked, and lights around the complex were dimmed.

Flights diverted elsewhere, the Flightradar24 tracker said. Countries including the United States, Britain, Germany, Australia and Canada warned citizens to avoid the airport.

The attacks on airports, military facilities and oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, have rattled markets and the region.

Fighting in Yemen between the Houthis and Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces has escalated, with the Saudi-led coalition providing air support for government forces in an attempt to reverse recent Houthi gains along the Red Sea.

The rebels’ gains gave them better surveillance of shipping on a corridor that’s a crucial alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been attacking ships.

Though the Houthis have told the AP and others they are only targeting Saudi shipping as part of a blockade in retaliation for one imposed on them, concerns about wider attacks persist.

The Houthis previously attacked other ships after the war in Gaza began, calling it solidarity with Palestinians. A U.S. bombing campaign ended that.

Saudi Arabia is running low on missile interceptors and has asked France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt to deploy air defence support to the region, regional officials told the AP last month, with one noting that the US has seen its own stock dwindle during the war with Iran.

Officials said U.S. assistance has included intelligence sharing, target identification and planning for the latest offensive.

The Saudi and Omani foreign ministers spoke by phone about the importance of “supporting diplomatic solutions to de-escalate tensions” in the region, the kingdom said on Saturday (October 10, 2026).

Oman, which lies across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, has played a mediator role at times in the region.

Meanwhile, Saudi authorities warned the public this week that “filming, publishing or sharing information related to countering missiles and drones and their impact sites exposes you to legal liability”.

This week, the Houthis warned global airlines “for the last time” about the potential consequences of operating in Saudi airspace, which they described as a theatre for their military operations.

At least 225 flights at the Riyadh airport had been cancelled over the past 24 hours, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.

Air India, FlyDubai, Lufthansa Group and Pakistan International Airlines have been among the airlines suspending flights to and from Riyadh and other Saudi airports for the next few days.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has expanded its guidance on Saudi airspace, noting the Houthis’ ability to strike targets deeper inside the kingdom, including Riyadh, and a “greater focus on aviation infrastructure.”

The missile and drone attacks and interception efforts “create an increased risk of misidentification of civil aircraft,” it said.

In Thursday’s attack, the Saudi national carrier said one of its aircraft was damaged while it was on the ground, with no passengers on board.

Published – October 11, 2026 01:04 am IST

Kuwait Airways said it had cancelled two flights in and out of Riyadh on October 10, 2026. (Photo: kuwaitairways.com)

Iran-backed Houthis said on Monday (October 5, 2026) they had struck Riyadh’s international airport, an oil refinery and other sites in Saudi Arabia, as the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said they had destroyed Houthi targets on the Red Sea coast.

Pakistan and Turkiye have pledged to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia under a new mutual defence pact following weeks of Houthi attacks, as Riyadh and its Yemeni government allies began an ambitious push aimed at retaking all territory held by the group.

The fighting in Yemen has become the most active front in the West Asia war in recent weeks, displacing more than 1,84,000 people, the United Nations says, and deepening the conflict that has engulfed the wider region.

The Houthis previously controlled much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and the western city of Hodeida, but seized swathes of coastline last month along the Red Sea and key Bab al-Mandab Strait, in Yemen’s deadliest fighting in years.

The Houthis have also been attacking neighbouring Saudi Arabia since Yemen’s civil war flared back to life and have declared a maritime blockade on its ships.

The Yemeni military said it carried out more than 1,000 strikes and began an offensive against Sanaa, while the Saudi-led coalition supporting the internationally recognised government said 100 warplanes flew sorties at dawn.

Turki Al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said on X that its naval forces had hit “military targets” belonging to the Houthis in Hodeida on the Red Sea coast.

They “destroyed weapons depots, facilities storing booby-trapped boats and naval mines” and had “thwarted a planned attack” targeting waterways in the southern Red Sea, he said.

Later, the military said it had driven the Houthis from the area surrounding the Bab al-Mandeb Strait — a vital route for maritime traffic — including the port city of Mocha, Dhubab airport and Al-Omari military camp.

They also said they expelled the Houthis from several areas in Taiz in the southwest, where deadly fighting has surged in recent days.

Military sources stopped short of confirming an official announcement of Mocha’s recapture, saying that pro-government forces had cut off the only supply route to the port.

UN ‘deeply concerned’

Loud explosions rattled the Saudi capital on Monday (October 5, 2026) evening, with a Houthi spokesman saying the group had hit King Khalid International Airport, a refinery belonging to state oil giant Aramco and other targets in the kingdom’s south.

It came a day after Yemen’s government announced the lofty goal of retaking all Houthi territory — home to most of the country’s population, and much of it held for more than a decade.

Representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkiye held an emergency meeting in Riyadh on Monday (September 5, 2026) under the auspices of a joint defence agreement signed in August committing them to come to each other’s aid in the event of any attack.

They also agreed “to take the necessary measures to provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment in the Kingdom”.

The statement did not specify what role the troops would fill once in Saudi Arabia.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned by the sharp escalation in fighting”, and condemned “the continued Houthi cross-border attacks” on Saudi Arabia.

Houthi attacks have repeatedly targeted Saudi oil infrastructure, as well as its tankers in the Red Sea.

A source in the Saudi energy sector told AFP that an attack on Sunday (October 4, 2026) had again halted pumping by the East-West pipeline to the Red Sea, a key conduit for the kingdom’s exports since Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the wider West Asia war.

Crude prices had already been soaring as a result of the West Asia war before the Houthis began targeting the world’s largest oil exporter.

Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser warned on Monday (October 5, 2026) that global oil stockpiles were “scarily thin” owing to the war.

“The system is already straining,” Mr. Nasser told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London.

Published – October 06, 2026 12:10 pm IST