DM Monitoring
WASHINGTON: At least 12 people were killed and 309 wounded in a Houthi attack on Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday, Saudi authorities said, as the Iran-backed group escalated its campaign against the kingdom. Saudi authorities blamed the Houthis for the attack, while a Saudi-led military coalition vowed to respond.
The dead included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis and one person each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt, according to the Saudi civil aviation authority. Hospitals were overwhelmed by casualties brought in by ambulances and helicopters, according to people briefed on the matter. Some of the wounded were in critical condition. The attack was the third on King Khalid International Airport this week and the deadliest in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade. Saturday’s strike occurred without warning, with no alert issued by the country’s threat warning system.
The two earlier attacks killed four people and caused extensive damage to a Saudi commercial aircraft parked on the tarmac.
The strikes have raised questions about vulnerabilities in Saudi Arabia’s air defences as the kingdom conducts an air campaign against the Houthis in support of a ground offensive by Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government have reported hundreds of strikes on territory controlled by the Houthis. The group has said the attacks killed civilians, including women and children. Reuters could not independently verify those claims.
