Houthis Hit Riyadh Airport Again, a Day After a Strike Killed 12 and Wounded 309

A passenger terminal at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was attacked again on Sunday, one day after a strike on the airport killed at least 12 people, including a U.S. citizen, and wounded hundreds of others. Saudi authorities said there were injuries in the latest attack, which hit the complex's Terminals 3 and 4, which serve domestic flights. The airport has now been struck four times in the past five days and has been closed since Saturday's missile attack.

Saturday's strike was the deadliest in a Gulf Arab nation since the Iran war began and the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade. Saudi authorities said 309 people were injured, some critically, and that several hospitals were treating the wounded. The Saudi statement said the dead included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, a Palestinian, a U.S. citizen, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian and a Sudanese. Egyptian state television identified one of the dead as Azza Ramzy, a 28-year-old flight attendant who worked for the Saudi airline Flynas. The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia said Sunday that one of its citizens, injured in the attack, had also died.

Yemen's Houthi movement, which is backed by Iran, said it carried out at least four operations against the airport since Saturday. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said on Telegram that the attacks were a response to what he called "brutal Saudi aggression against our country and our people," according to CBS News partner BBC News. He claimed Saudi Arabia launched more than 120 airstrikes on Houthi-controlled territory in the past 24 hours. The Houthis said their other targets included the Shugadam gas facility, which belongs to the Saudi state energy company Aramco, the Tanajib oil refinery, and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam. Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority confirmed the strike on King Fahd Airport.

Earlier on Saturday, the Houthis threatened new attacks on the kingdom's airports, with the exception of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina, and warned passengers not to travel. "The airports and airspace are exposed to targeting and constitute a theatre of operations for our forces," Saree wrote on X, urging "everyone to take our warnings seriously." On Sunday, the Houthis said the airport they control in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, had been struck again. They blamed the Saudis but gave no details. The escalation has come in the week since a Saudi-led coalition launched a major military offensive against the Houthis.

Saudi Arabia has moved Riyadh schools online in response to the threat, and flights have been diverted elsewhere, according to the tracker Flightradar24. The United States, Britain, Germany, Australia and Canada have all warned their citizens to avoid the airport.

The attack drew condemnation from the United Nations and world leaders. President Trump has said he is considering joining Saudi strikes on the Houthis. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media that the United States "strongly condemns the recent attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by the terrorist Houthis," including the strike that "took numerous innocent lives, including an American citizen." A State Department spokesperson told CBS News the administration is in close contact with its Saudi partners. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the attacks by Iran's proxies are "pushing the region into a spiral of violence" and "destabilizing crucial global transport and energy nodes."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms" and extended his condolences, saying terrorism "targets innocent people and seeks to spread fear and instability." The strikes further complicate sputtering efforts to bring an end to the U.S.-Iran war, and they put two of the world's most important energy and air-travel hubs within reach of a group that has now said openly that Saudi airspace is a battlefield.