A missile strike on the international airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, killed 12 people and wounded more than 300 on Saturday 10 October 2026, according to the kingdom’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA). The attack was the third reported strike on the airport within a week, and it marked the deadliest assault on a Gulf Arab country since the start of what international reports describe as the Iran war.
This article pulls together what the official statements, wire agencies and international broadcasters have reported so far: the timeline of the attack, the conflicting claims of responsibility, the wider week of strikes on Saudi airports, and the war in Yemen that these attacks belong to. Where accounts differ or remain unconfirmed, that is stated explicitly.
What happened on Saturday 10 October
King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh’s main international hub, was struck in the afternoon of Saturday 10 October local time. The Associated Press reported that a Saudi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said many people were wounded after a missile hit a passenger terminal. Operations at the airport were suspended, and the civil aviation authority said it was assessing damage and counting injuries.
Reuters reported witnesses seeing a large blast and ambulances rushing to the airport, with travellers evacuated from parts of the terminal. There was no immediate claim of responsibility when the first reports were published, the CBC reported, with the attack coming amid an escalation of missile strikes by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia later extended the closure of the airport, according to a flight tracker cited by the AP, and the kingdom’s allies condemned the attack as a serious violation of Saudi sovereignty. This was the deadliest attack on the kingdom in more than a decade, Al Jazeera reported.
The death toll and the injured
GACA’s follow-up statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency on Sunday 11 October, gave the toll in detail. The attack resulted in 12 fatalities: four Saudi citizens and residents of eight other nationalities — two Bangladeshis and one person each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Palestine, and one Sudanese national.
The authority said 309 people were injured, several in critical condition, and that all were receiving medical treatment at a number of hospitals. It gave its condolences to the families of the dead and said material damage was still being assessed.
The confirmed identities include at least one American citizen, a point reported by the AP and echoed across coverage of the strike. The AP described the strike as the deadliest in any Gulf Arab country since the start of the Iran war, whose fronts have expanded to include the surge in fighting between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and Saudi-backed government forces there.
Who is blamed for the attack
Responsibility is a point where the reporting needed care. Early accounts published shortly after the strike said there was no immediate claim of responsibility, and GACA’s own statements in recent days have tended to describe the attacks without naming who carried them out.
According to the AP, the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen blamed Saturday’s attack on the Houthis. The coalition also announced that a projectile had landed near King Fahd International Airport in the eastern city of Dammam, the DW reported.
The Houthis’ military spokesman, Yahya Saree, has claimed the group’s earlier strikes this week, and the group has consistently framed its airport attacks as a response to Saudi Arabia’s support for the internationally recognised government of Yemen. Saudi Arabia’s accusation and the group’s pattern of claims do not by themselves amount to independent verification of who fired Saturday’s missile.
A week of attacks on Saudi airports
Saturday’s strike was not an isolated incident. It followed a concentrated wave of attacks on Saudi airports that the BBC and other outlets have documented day by day.
- 18 September. Saudi-led coalition forces said they intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile fired towards King Khalid airport.
- 19 September. An earlier Houthi attack set a fuel storage area at King Khalid airport ablaze, in scenes shown in a widely shared Reuters photograph.
- 5 October. GACA said attacks targeted King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Airport and Najran International Airport, resulting in three minor injuries and property damage.
- 6–7 October. Two people were killed and 28 wounded in an attack on Abha International Airport, and another person was killed at King Khalid airport — three deaths in total across the two airports, according to the BBC and civil aviation officials.
- 8 October. Two attacks hit King Khalid airport and a Saudia aircraft on the ground. Three Saudi nationals were killed, including a Saudia pilot, Captain Hamoud Ali Alkalthami, who was identified by the airline. Several people of other nationalities were wounded. The Houthis said they had attacked the airport with two ballistic missiles and also targeted an airport in Najran and the Khamis Mushait air base.
- 9 October. GACA said King Khalid airport had reopened, while airlines were still cancelling or suspending services days before Riyadh was due to host major energy and investment conferences.
- 10 October. The Saturday strike: 12 killed, more than 300 wounded, operations suspended.
- 11 October. GACA confirmed the final toll in a follow-up statement, and world leaders issued condemnations.
The frequency matters. The report covering the 8 October attacks noted that the previous 24 hours alone had involved what the Houthis’ spokesman described as “60 air strikes and missile attacks” by the coalition, and airlines cancelled hundreds of flights into the Saudi capital in response to the earlier attacks.
Why this is happening: the war in Yemen
The context for the airport attacks is the renewed fighting in Yemen, where the Houthis, an Iran-aligned movement that controls most of the country’s north-west, are at war with the internationally recognised government and its Saudi-led coalition.
The coalition was formed in 2015 after Arab states joined forces to stop the Houthis from taking over Yemen. The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, in the BBC’s assessment, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
A ceasefire brokered in 2022 largely held for years, then began to unravel in July 2026. The Houthis announced what they called a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers, saying they were retaliating for what they describe as a years-long Saudi blockade and for an air strike on Sanaa airport. The same statement around 8 October repeated a warning that oil facilities “represent targets for our forces”.
On the ground, the Houthis seized strategically important stretches of Yemen’s Red Sea coast in a rapid offensive, including the port of Mokha on the Bab al-Mandab strait, the narrow passage that is a chokepoint for global shipping. Saudi-backed government forces launched a counteroffensive and said they had secured the strait, although reports of who controls Mokha have conflicted. Yemen’s president has announced what the BBC described as an all-out war to reclaim territory from the Houthis.
The airport strikes therefore sit at the junction of two escalations: the Houthis’ attempt to shut down Saudi air travel and shipping as part of their blockade strategy, and the coalition’s renewed ground and air campaign in and around the Red Sea coast.
The weapons behind the strikes
The attacks have involved ballistic missiles and exploding drones, fired from Houthi-held territory. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted three Houthi ballistic missiles on 8 October, and reported destroying a missile fired towards Riyadh on 18 September.
Reports of intercepted missiles are inherently difficult to verify independently. What is observable is the effect: an aircraft belonging to state carrier Saudia was damaged on the ground on 8 October, airport operations have been suspended repeatedly, and passengers have been evacuated from terminals.
Attacks that reached a passenger terminal, as the Saturday strike is reported to have done, are significant against this backdrop because civilian aviation infrastructure and passengers are protected under international humanitarian law. That is part of why the strike drew worldwide condemnation.
Impact on aviation, oil and the region
The immediate, measurable impact of the week’s attacks was disruption to civil aviation. Airlines suspended or cancelled services into the Saudi capital in the days before Riyadh was due to host major energy and investment conferences. Organisers of those conferences said on Saturday that they would go ahead as planned.
The attacks also moved markets. CNN reported on 8 October that oil prices jumped after the blasts, and the AP noted that the strikes have sent up oil prices and rattled markets because Saudi Arabia is the world’s top oil exporter. Oil prices are a sensitive channel through which conflict in the region affects the global economy.
Politically, the strike has intensified pressure on Saudi Arabia’s allies, especially the United States. The AP reported that shortly after the attack, US President Donald Trump said the United States was evaluating whether to join Saudi strikes against the Houthis: “We may. We’re going to look at it.” The kingdom, the AP noted, has seemed to try to avoid all-out war with the Houthis while seeking more support from its partners.
What is disputed or still unverified
- Responsibility for Saturday’s strike. Initial reports said no group had claimed it. The Saudi-led coalition subsequently blamed the Houthis, who had claimed the week’s earlier attacks. There has been no independently verified admission for the Saturday strike specifically.
- The size of the death toll as it developed. Early casualty reports spoke of “several” injured; GACA’s statement on Sunday raised the toll to 12 dead and 309 injured as rescue operations continued.
- Weapon types and intercepts. Official claims about intercepted missiles and the type of warhead used on Saturday cannot be independently confirmed.
- Control of the Red Sea coast. Government forces said they had secured the Bab al-Mandab strait, while reports of whether the port of Mokha was recaptured have conflicted.
What to watch next
- Saudi Arabia’s response: whether the kingdom authorises further strikes against Houthi territory and military infrastructure, and how it handles the airport closure.
- The United States: whether Washington ends up joining Saudi strikes, as President Trump signalled it was considering.
- The Red Sea front: whether the government counteroffensive regains the coastal areas the Houthis seized, and whether the Houthis strike shipping again.
- Diplomacy: whether the international condemnation translates into a renewed push for a ceasefire, or whether the fronts keep expanding.
Frequently asked questions
How many people were killed in the Riyadh airport attack?
GACA, the Saudi civil aviation authority, said 12 people were killed: four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, and one person each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan. A further 309 were injured, some critically.
Was the attack on the airport claimed?
Early reports said there was no immediate claim. The Saudi-led coalition later blamed Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who had claimed the earlier attacks on Saudi airports that week. No claim for the Saturday strike itself has been independently verified.
Was this the first attack on the airport?
No. King Khalid International Airport was attacked repeatedly in the week before: on 6–7 October (one person killed), on 8 October (two attacks, killing three Saudis including a Saudia pilot), and on 10 October, the deadliest of the sequence.
Why are the Houthis attacking Saudi airports?
The Houthis say they are retaliating for Saudi Arabia’s role in Yemen’s war and for what they call a years-long blockade, and they have linked the attacks to a maritime embargo they announced in July 2026. The BBC and other outlets report the group’s stated reasons without endorsing them.
Is the airport open?
Operations were suspended after the 10 October strike, and Saudi Arabia extended the closure, according to a flight tracker cited by the Associated Press. The airport had reopened on 9 October after the previous attacks before being hit again.
What is the wider conflict about?
The attack is part of the war in Yemen, where an Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls most of the country’s north-west is fighting Yemen’s internationally recognised government backed by a Saudi-led coalition. A 2022 ceasefire largely held for years before unravelling from July 2026.
Sources
- Saudi Press Agency, “GACA Follow-up Statement on the Attack Targeting King Khalid International Airport,” 11 October 2026: spa.gov.sa
- Associated Press, “Attack on Saudi Arabia’s main airport kills 12 and injures over 300,” 11 October 2026: apnews.com
- BBC News, “Saudi Arabia says three nationals killed in Houthi attacks on Riyadh airport”: bbc.com
- DW, “Saudi Arabia: 12 killed, hundreds injured in Riyadh strike”: dw.com
- Al Jazeera, “World condemns deadly Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh airport,” 11 October 2026: aljazeera.com
- Al Jazeera, “Attack on airport in Saudi capital, Riyadh, leaves several injured,” 10 October 2026: aljazeera.com
- Al Jazeera, “Saudi-led coalition says it intercepts three Houthi ballistic missiles,” 8 October 2026: aljazeera.com
- CBC News, “Several wounded, flights suspended after Riyadh airport attacked again”: cbc.ca
- CNN, “Explosions heard in Saudi capital as Riyadh airport is reported closed,” 8 October 2026: cnn.com
- Saudi Gazette, “12 killed, 309 injured in attack on Riyadh airport, GACA confirms”: saudigazette.com.sa
This article is a synthesis of the statements and reports listed above, current as of 11 October 2026. Casualty figures come from Saudi official statements and have changed during reporting. The responsibility for Saturday’s strike has been attributed by the Saudi-led coalition but not independently verified. The situation is developing; check the primary sources and established news organisations for updates before sharing.
