{"id":2465,"date":"2026-10-10T22:03:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T17:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2465"},"modified":"2026-10-10T22:03:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T17:03:54","slug":"missile-hits-riyadh-airport-dozens-hurt-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2465","title":{"rendered":"Missile hits Riyadh airport, dozens hurt: source"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Yemen\u2019s Houthis attacked Riyadh\u2019s international airport with a missile on Saturday, a diplomatic source told AFP<\/em>, with dozens reported wounded and a witness describing panic in the terminal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saudi authorities did not confirm any new attack or evacuation, but one witness reported hearing an explosion while waiting to board a flight, and another said they saw a strike that left people wounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on gate 403\u201d at the domestic terminal, the witness told AFP.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI saw 401 hit, I saw injured in front of my eyes. Everyone was running.\u201d<\/p>\n

A source at a local hospital told AFP<\/em> that five people were in intensive care after being wounded at the airport, saying \u201cdozens of people were injured\u201d in all.<\/p>\n

The relative of one injured person said they had been wounded in the shoulders and arms by shattered glass, and had been taken to hospital.<\/p>\n

Three witnesses confirmed people being evacuated from the airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cHouthis are attacking civilian targets. Riyadh airport is a civilian target,\u201d the diplomatic source told AFP<\/em>, saying the airport was hit by \u201ca missile around 3:00 pm\u201d (1200 GMT).<\/p>\n

The airport was hit by deadly attacks claimed by Yemen\u2019s Houthis on Thursday, though the Iran-backed group did not announce any fresh strikes on the facility on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Houthis have repeatedly attacked Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers after a truce in their long-running war with Yemen\u2019s Riyadh-backed government unravelled in July.<\/p>\n

Admissions by Saudi authorities of strikes hitting civilian targets are relatively rare, with officials issuing few statements on Houthi attacks in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

The scale and frequency of the recent strikes targeting Riyadh are unprecedented in the eight months of war that has spread across the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that supports Yemen\u2019s government militarily, and has found itself drawn deeper into its impoverished neighbour\u2019s civil war.<\/p>\n

Both Riyadh and the Houthis have signalled a willingness to keep fighting rather than pursue diplomacy.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u2018Contact your airline\u2019<\/h3>\n

Earlier on Saturday, Riyadh airport urged passengers to check their flight status before coming \u2014 echoing an advisory sent on Thursday, when attacks killed three people, including a pilot for Saudia, the national airline.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease contact your airline directly and confirm your flight status before heading to the airport,\u201d read a statement posted on the airport\u2019s official X account on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s Houthi-claimed attacks also badly damaged a grounded Saudia plane.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Yemen, Saudi-supported government forces were advancing against the Houthis in areas they captured last month around the Bab al-Mandab strait, military sources told AFP.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Yemeni government last week announced a counter-offensive aimed at retaking all areas held by the Houthis, after the group seized the country\u2019s entire western coastline in a lightning offensive.<\/p>\n

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 they claimed to have repelled the assault.<\/p>\n

Claims by the warring parties have been impossible to independently verify, with the situation moving fast on the ground and access for journalists difficult.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yemen\u2019s Houthis attacked Riyadh\u2019s international airport with a missile on Saturday, a diplomatic source told AFP, with dozens reported wounded and a witness describing panic in the terminal. Saudi authorities did not confirm any new attack or evacuation, but one witness reported hearing an explosion while waiting to board a flight, and another said they saw a strike that left people wounded. \u201cI was on gate 403\u201d at the domestic terminal, the witness told AFP. \u201cI saw 401 hit, I saw injured in front of my eyes. Everyone was running.\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}