A projectile hit King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Sunday, killing one person and injuring 11, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said, a day after a missile strike on the same site killed 12 people and wounded more than 300.
GACA said the dead person was a Pakistani resident. The injured were taken to several hospitals, and the authority said damage assessments and safety inspections were under way.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said an unidentified projectile struck Terminal 4 on Sunday afternoon and started a fire, and that air defences intercepted a cruise missile near the airport. NPR reported that Saudi officials later said King Fahd International Airport in Dammam had also been attacked, with few details given.
The airport has been closed since Saturday’s strike, which hit a complex housing terminals 3 and 4. The coalition blamed Yemen’s Houthi group for that attack and said it would respond firmly, calling it a breach of international humanitarian law. India’s embassy in Riyadh said an Indian national hurt on Saturday had died of his injuries, bringing that attack’s toll to 13. The dead include four Saudis, two Bangladeshis, and one person each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt.
Al Jazeera described Saturday’s strike as the deadliest in the kingdom since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began in late February. The airport has been hit four times in five days. Earlier Houthi attacks this week killed at least three Saudi citizens, including a pilot, on Thursday, and one person on Oct. 7.
The Houthis said in the earlier episodes that they were targeting Riyadh’s airport, and had warned airlines to avoid Saudi airspace. The Houthis did not immediately comment on Sunday’s strike in the reports reviewed.
The escalation follows a major offensive launched about a week ago against the Houthis in Yemen. Casualty figures are preliminary and drawn from Saudi authorities and media accounts.
