Saturday’s attack on Riyadh prompted health officials to activate a rare mass call-up of doctors to deal with the “serious emergency”, a medical source said.
RIYADH: A suspected Houthi strike on Riyadh’s international airport Saturday killed two people, a medical source told AFP, forcing aviation officials to suspend operations there.
The Riyadh attack also wounded dozens of people and sent passengers fleeing, witnesses and medical sources said.
READ MORE: Houthis claim second Riyadh airport attack in a week
READ MORE: Three killed at Saudi airports after Houthis claim attacks
The Houthis have unleashed a wave of strikes against the kingdom on an unprecedented scale, targeting Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers since a truce in their long-running war with Yemen’s Riyadh-backed government unravelled in July.
Saturday’s attack on Riyadh prompted health officials to activate a rare mass call-up of doctors to deal with the “serious emergency”, a medical source said.
Foreign embassies warned their citizens to avoid the airport.
The Saudi civil aviation authority had earlier confirmed an attack that had wounded several people at the sprawling facility.
A diplomatic source attributed the attack to a Houthi missile.
One passenger told AFP they witnessed a strike in the airport’s domestic terminal.
“I was on gate 403,” the witness said. “I saw 401 hit, I saw injured in front of my eyes. Everyone was running.”
Hours after the Riyadh attack, a spokesman for the Saudi-led international coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis said in a post on X that a “projectile” had landed near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam.
– ‘Serious emergency situation’ –
The Iran-backed Houthis have repeatedly targeted Riyadh’s airport, claiming a series of strikes on Thursday that killed three people and damaged a plane, though they did not announce any new attacks on Saturday.
A medical source at a local hospital said at least two people had been killed Saturday.
The source identified one as an Egyptian flight attendant for a Saudi airline, and the other as a Palestinian with Egyptian travel documents.
Another source briefed on the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the deaths and the victims’ nationalities.
The medical source earlier told AFP that the health ministry had ordered ER doctors to report to hospitals around the capital.
“We were told we are dealing with a ‘serious emergency situation’,” the source said, adding many of the injured were in critical condition.
Two doctors told AFP that several pilgrims headed to Mecca had been among the wounded.
Admissions by Saudi authorities of strikes hitting civilian targets are relatively rare.
Without mentioning the Houthis by name, the aviation authority said the number of injured from Saturday’s attack was still being assessed.
Airport “operations had been temporarily suspended” pending assessment of the damage, it added.
– US ‘may’ join Saudi strikes –
The civil war in Yemen flared back to life in July after a four-year, UN-brokered truce collapsed, months into a wider Middle East war that has rocked the region and roiled energy supplies and markets.
Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has supported Yemen’s government militarily since 2015 and is now being drawn deeper into its impoverished neighbour’s conflict.
US media outlets have reported that previous Saudi requests for American military assistance in dealing with the Houthis have been rebuffed.
Asked on Saturday whether he had changed his mind about joining Saudi strikes on the group, US President Donald Trump said: “We may.”
“We’re going to look at it,” he told reporters in front of the White House. “We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision.”
The US, Canadian, German and Spanish embassies in Saudi Arabia called on their citizens to avoid the airport.
A senior Western diplomat told AFP that several embassies had said they were banning their staff from using the airport “over the next week”.
Near the airport, passengers carrying luggage could be seen standing on the pavement at a metro station.
The latest attack comes on the eve of Saudi Arabia’s high-profile convention and entertainment season, which begins this month.
Riyadh usually hosts a packed calendar of events, including its flagship investment conference drawing foreign leaders and business titans.
– ‘Moving up the escalation ladder’ –
In Yemen, Saudi-supported government forces were advancing against the Houthis in areas the group captured last month around the Bab al-Mandab strait, military sources told AFP.
The Yemeni government last week announced a counter-offensive aimed at retaking all areas held by the Houthis.
The Houthis confirmed that government forces had attacked in the Bab al-Mandab area — a key chokepoint for Red Sea oil and cargo shipping — but claimed to have repelled them.
Claims by the warring parties have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation moving fast on the ground and access for journalists difficult.
Analyst Anna Jacob of the Arab Gulf States Institute predicted the Saudis would take an even tougher tack against the Houthis in response to the recent attacks.
“One thing is for sure, we are moving up the escalation ladder in a very dangerous way,” she said.
