attacks on King Khalid airport<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday killed at least three Saudi citizens, including a pilot, according to GACA.<\/p>\nOperations at the airport were temporarily suspended after Saturday\u2019s attack, GACA said in an earlier statement, adding that officials were assessing the damage and determining the exact number of injuries.<\/p>\n
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen called the attack a \u201cfull-fledged war crime\u201d. Spokesperson Major-General Turki al-Malki said the coalition would \u201crespond decisively to this terrorist attack in accordance with the Customary International Humanitarian Law\u201d.<\/p>\n
Al-Malki also confirmed a separate incident, saying in a post on X that \u201ca projectile fell in the vicinity of King Fahd International Airport in Dammam\u201d.<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington \u201cstrongly condemns\u201d Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, including Saturday\u2019s attack on King Khalid airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese reprehensible attacks demonstrate a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life. They must stop now,\u201d Rubio said in a social media post on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The head of the Houthi media office said in a post on X after Saturday\u2019s attack that the group had \u201cshut down Riyadh international airport\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Houthis have said airliners should avoid Saudi airspace, declaring it a zone of military operations after the Yemeni government launched an offensive against the group on Monday.<\/p>\n
Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels are at war with the Saudi-backed Yemeni government in Aden.<\/p>\n
The Iran-backed group has warned aviation companies to avoid using Saudi airspace, saying any aircraft operating there \u2013 except over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina \u2013 is a target.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Saturday, King Khalid airport urged passengers to contact their airlines directly and check their flight status before heading to the airport amid reports of disruptions to air traffic. The airport did not specify the cause of the disruptions in its initial advisory.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also instructed Saudi citizens travelling to the kingdom to contact local embassies if their travel itineraries have been disrupted following the attack.<\/p>\n
United States President Donald Trump was asked outside the White House whether Washington planned to join the Saudi strikes on the Houthis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may. We\u2019re going to look at it. We just found out about the \u2060\u2060\u2060\u2060recent attack, so we\u2019ll make a decision. We move very quickly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Saudis are good fighters, but I think the attack was a terrible thing\u201d, Trump remarked.<\/p>\n
A \u2018security situation\u2019<\/p>\n
At the same time, foreign embassies in Riyadh, including those of the US, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada, issued advisories on social media to their citizens in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
The US mission said it was \u201caware of attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh\u201d and \u201cstrongly recommends\u201d all US citizens avoid the airport and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n
The UK and Irish embassies advised their nationals about \u201ca serious incident\u201d at the airport. Canada\u2019s embassy advised citizens in Riyadh to avoid all travel to the airport, noting \u201congoing military activity\u201d.<\/p>\n
Qatar\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Saturday\u2019s attack in the \u201cstrongest terms\u201d, saying Doha considered it \u201ca direct threat to the security of the region\u201d. Jordan and Oman expressed sympathy and solidarity with Riyadh.<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s embassy also \u201cstrongly\u201d condemned Houthi attacks on airports and other Saudi civilian facilities.<\/p>\n
Kuwait Airways said it was cancelling flights because the airport had closed due to a \u201csecurity situation\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the Houthi military spokesperson said the group had launched a ballistic missile towards the airport in Riyadh, claiming it successfully hit its intended target, causing damage and disrupting air traffic.<\/p>\n
Days earlier, alleged Houthi attacks on Abha and King Khalid airports killed three civilians<\/a> and injured 36 others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Houthi attack on King Khalid International airport in Saudi Arabia\u2019s capital, Riyadh, killed at least 12 people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2410,5704,49,57308,632,111216,50,5386,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-798691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-aviation","tag-conflict","tag-headlines","tag-houthis","tag-middle-east","tag-mohammed-bin-salman","tag-news","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}