Sunday's Riyadh airport attack killed a Pakistani resident and wounded 11 other people when a projectile struck King Khalid International Airport, the country's civil aviation authority said. The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), which regulates airports and flight safety in the kingdom, said the injured were moved to several hospitals. It came a day after the Houthi attack on the Saudi airport, which killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 300.
What Sunday's strike did
Al Jazeera reported that the projectile hit terminals 3 and 4, which handle domestic flights. GACA named the dead person as a Pakistani resident, while Geo News described the victim as a Pakistani national. Geo also called the incident a fresh Houthi strike and said the authorities had extended the airport closure by 24 hours.
Damage assessments and safety inspections were still under way, Al Jazeera reported, quoting GACA. Earlier on Sunday, a BBC account quoted the Saudi civil aviation authority as speaking only of "some injuries", before the death and the fuller injury count were confirmed. Geo News carried a Reuters image, dated 8 October, of smoke and flames at the airport after the Houthis said they had attacked it.
Saturday's toll, and who claimed it
Reports do not give an identical death toll for Saturday, 10 October. The BBC said the Houthis had accepted responsibility for several "targeted" attacks on Saudi Arabia in the previous 24 hours, including the strike on King Khalid International that killed 13 people and injured more than 300. Business Recorder also reported that the earlier strike, claimed by the Houthis, killed 13 and wounded more than 300.
Al Jazeera said the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen had counted 12 dead from Saturday's missile, with more than 300 wounded. India's embassy said one Indian citizen died on Sunday from injuries suffered in that attack, which would bring Saturday's toll to 13. That death is separate from the Pakistani resident killed on Sunday. Dawn reported a fresh Houthi strike the day after the deadly attack. The BBC said the Houthis warned airlines not to use Saudi airports or airspace because "they are unsafe".
Closures, other targets and what follows
Cirium, an aviation data firm, found that the airport cancelled 99.7% of scheduled flights on Sunday, Business Recorder reported. The same data suggested about 60% of Monday's scheduled flights would be cancelled. The BBC said hundreds of flights to and from Saudi Arabia had been delayed or cancelled, and that the kingdom had moved schools to remote learning for a week on safety grounds.
The disruption around the Riyadh airport attack has spread beyond a single terminal. Geo News reported that Saudi Arabia said it had "intercepted and destroyed" a Houthi ballistic missile heading for Khamis Mushait, and that the civil aviation authority had reported an attack on Dammam airport. The report gave no casualty figures for Dammam. Iran said it was ready to help start talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, Geo reported.
Pakistan, Turkiye, Egypt and Saudi Arabia condemned the attacks, Business Recorder reported. The BBC described the strikes as a further stage in the conflict between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia. Inspections are unfinished, Monday's timetable is already thinner, and passengers through Riyadh still face a sharp cut in flights. See also Zaviya's report on a missile incident near Terminal 4.
