Forces aligned with the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen reported early Monday that an object of undetermined origin had struck a terminal at Riyadh's international airport, touching off a fire — an incident occurring one day after a separate attack left 13 people dead and hundreds more with injuries.
Casualty figures remained unclear, with the Saudi civil aviation authority noting that a damage assessment was still under way. A cruise missile aimed at the area around King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was reported to have been intercepted by air defence systems, according to a statement from the coalition. The statement further indicated that an unmanned aerial device headed toward the kingdom's Eastern Province had been intercepted and rendered inoperable.
The attacks exposed gaps in Saudi Arabia's air-defence network at a time when the kingdom was conducting an aerial bombardment campaign against the Houthis, a group aligned with Iran that has been engaged in ground combat in Yemen against the Yemeni government, which receives Saudi backing.
Flights into and out of the airport remained suspended following the attack earlier that Sunday, while a long-scheduled international energy conference in Riyadh proceeded without interruption.
Speaking on television, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree announced that his group had carried out strikes on Dammam airport in Saudi Arabia's eastern province along with two facilities belonging to oil company Saudi Aramco, and that it accepted accountability for the earlier attack. Neither the media office representing the Saudi government nor Aramco provided any reply when approached for comment.
Aviation authorities in Saudi Arabia reported that an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam had taken place, with inspections of the facility's infrastructure and evaluations of any resulting damage both under way. A passenger aboard an aircraft that was taxiing at Dammam airport reported to a broadcast outlet that, at roughly 8:30 pm local time on Sunday, an object struck the tarmac in the vicinity of several stationary aircraft, igniting a fire. Passengers stepped off the plane after it taxied back to the gate, and airport staff then directed them to exit the terminal, according to the witness.
Data logged by Flightradar24 pointed to a string of postponed and cancelled flights — both inbound and outbound — at the airport serving Dammam, a hub city at the heart of the kingdom's oil-producing eastern territory and the country's third-busiest air gateway.
The group reiterated its advisory to airlines, airport personnel, and travellers to avoid Saudi airports, adding in a statement that those affected should take the notices seriously and that Saudi Arabia would bear responsibility for any interceptions that fell short.
Over the past several weeks, air strikes attributed to Saudi Arabia have targeted Houthi positions while Riyadh has also thrown its weight behind a Yemeni government offensive aimed at reclaiming territory along the Red Sea coast that Houthi forces took control of the previous month. Houthi representatives reported that 124 air strikes attributed to Saudi Arabia had struck Yemeni territory over a single 24-hour period, with targets including the capital Sanaa and the northern stronghold of Saada.
The Houthi-run foreign ministry in Yemen conveyed through Al Masirah television that any continuation of Saudi military operations in the country would draw a proportional reply, with the ministry's statement framing its intended course of action around the principle of reciprocity and indicating that an absence of de-escalation from the Saudi side would bring a heightened response.
Over the weekend, Trump indicated that the United States was weighing direct participation alongside Saudi Arabia in strikes against the Houthis, a conflict that has grown out of the broader hostilities between Iran and a US-Israeli military campaign that began in February.
