12 Killed, More Than 300 Wounded in Terror Attack on Saudi International Airport

A terror attack on a passenger terminal of the Saudi capital’s international airport late Saturday killed 12 and injured more than 300, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said Sunday. The coalition blamed the attack on Iran-backed Houthis in neighboring Yemen.

The attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh “constitutes a full-fledged war crime according to the Customary International Humanitarian Law,” the Saudi coalition said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attack.

One American citizen was among the “numerous innocent lives” taken, Rubio said in a statement hours after reports of the missile strike.

The Saudi coalition said in its statement that in addition to the American, the deceased included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, a Palestinian, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian, and a Sudanese.

The group said the injured were being treated at several hospitals. Civil aviation authorities said early Sunday that some were in critical condition.

There have been several Houthi attacks on Saudi airports this past week, including one on King Khalid International airport on Oct. 7 for which the Houthis claimed responsibility.

The Saudi-led coalition responded with operations targeting the Houthis’ ballistic missile capabilities and weapons storages.

“We are working to dismantle and destroy the ballistic missile network of the terrorist Houthi militia,” spokesman for the coalition Colonel Turki Al-Maliki said in a statement on X. He said that 136 military targets had been destroyed.

The Houthis have not claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

The U.S. State Department has warned Americans to exercise caution when traveling in the region.

In an Oct. 11 update, the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh said it “strongly recommends all U.S. citizens avoid this airport and surrounding areas.”

“Please take extreme caution when using all major airports in Saudi Arabia,” it added.

Shortly after the attack, President Donald Trump was asked if the United States would join Saudi strikes against the Houthis. “We may. We’re going to look at it,” he told reporters. “We just found out about the recent attack. So we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”

Later, Trump said he planned to speak to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the attack.

“What happened in Saudi Arabia is not acceptable,” he told reporters.

The deaths make it the deadliest attack on any Gulf Arab country since the start of the Iran war in February. The conflict has recently escalated in the new battlefront at the Saudi–Yemen border and the Red Sea, with the Houthis fighting Arab coalition government forces led by Saudi Arabia.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement Sunday: “Attacks on civilians & civilian infrastructure are a violation of international law. These attacks must cease immediately.”

The Council of Arab Interior Ministers, representing the 22 member nations of the League of Arab States, condemned the attack.

Muslim World League Secretary-General Mohammed Al-Issa said the terrorist act violates “all religious values, international laws, and humanitarian norms,” and reflects “the criminal approach of this terrorist militia in deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.