Attacks on Abha and Riyadh Airports Kill Three and Injure 36, Saudi Aviation Authority Says

Three people were killed and 36 injured in attacks on Abha International Airport and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority said. The Houthis claimed the strikes.

Attacks on two Saudi airports killed three people and injured 36, Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said on Wednesday, October 7. The casualties were at Abha International Airport in the south of the kingdom and at King Khalid International Airport in the capital, Riyadh.

The attacks took place on October 6 and 7.

Casualties at each airport

At Abha, GACA said, two residents of the kingdom were killed, one Moroccan and one Algerian, and 28 people were injured. The National, an Emirati newspaper, identified the two people killed at Abha as women.

At King Khalid International Airport, the authority reported one Sudanese national killed and eight people injured. According to The National, the injured in Riyadh were five Saudis, two Egyptians and one Pakistani.

GACA also reported damage to property and said the casualties had received treatment in hospital.

The Houthi claim

Yahya Saree, the military spokesman of the Houthis, claimed responsibility, saying drones had targeted Riyadh and missiles and drones had targeted Abha. His account of the weapons has not been independently confirmed.

Fighting in Yemen spills over to airports

The strikes on Saudi airports came as fighting in Yemen intensified. Yemen's internationally recognised government has begun a Saudi backed offensive against the Houthis, and before dawn on October 7 a passenger flight from Cairo was diverted from Aden after a missile landed near the runway, according to Yemen's Transport Ministry.

The attacks also followed an emergency meeting in Riyadh on October 5, at which Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey agreed, under their Makkah Alliance for Defense, to deploy forces in the kingdom after earlier attacks on it.