The Current Affairs Digest · ages 15+ · 2026-10-13
Leaders Condemn Houthi Strikes on Riyadh Airport; Saudi Arabia Calls Them a War Crime
Three attacks hit King Khalid International Airport in a week. Washington says it is weighing whether to join Saudi operations.
Saudi Arabia says the Houthis, an Iran-backed group from Yemen, attacked Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport three times in one week. On Thursday 8 October, missiles killed an airline pilot and two other Saudis. Saturday's attack was the deadliest: Saudi Arabia says at least 12 people died and about 300 were wounded. Reports describe it as the deadliest attack on the kingdom in more than a decade.
The dead and wounded included citizens of Saudi Arabia (four), Bangladesh (two), and one each from the US, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt, according to the General Authority of Civil Aviation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply shocked", and UN envoy Hans Grundberg called attacks on civilian airports "a grave escalation". India, Japan, Canada and Malaysia condemned the attack. Egypt called it a "flagrant violation" of international law, Qatar a serious violation of Saudi sovereignty, and Oman urged restraint to avoid wider escalation.
Mr Trump called the attack "terrible" and said Washington was weighing whether to join the campaign against the Houthis; Secretary of State Marco Rubio said an American was among the dead, and Australia advised its citizens to reconsider travelling to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, which is running an air campaign against the Houthis to support Yemen's government offensive, called the attack a war crime. It extended its airport closure as the Houthis threatened more attacks.
Why it matters
Civilian airports are shared infrastructure: people from many countries pass through them. Attacks on one draw in governments far from Yemen, which is why the diplomacy now matters as much as the fighting.
THE RED SEA. Saudi Arabia and Yemen sit on the eastern shore of the Red Sea.