Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said strikes on two of the kingdom's airports killed three people and left 36 wounded, according to the Turkish newspaper Milliyet. The attacks targeted Abha International Airport in the country's south and King Khalid International Airport in the capital, Riyadh, and took place across two days, the authority said.
GACA described two separate assaults on airport facilities, one on each day, without specifying which occurred when. Emergency crews and the relevant agencies responded immediately and followed approved procedures and plans, the authority stated.
Why it matters
The strikes reached Riyadh, the seat of the Saudi government, as well as a civilian airport in the south that has been hit repeatedly in past rounds of this conflict. Civil aviation authorities framed their response around protecting passengers, workers and the country's air transport system, a sign of how directly the war is now touching civilian infrastructure.
The Houthis, the Iran-backed movement in Yemen, said they targeted the airports in Riyadh and Abha with ballistic missiles and drones, Milliyet reported. The Saudi-led Arab Coalition confirmed it destroyed a ballistic missile launch platform used in the attack on Riyadh.
Casualties at Abha and Riyadh
At Abha International Airport, two women — citizens of Morocco and Algeria — were killed, according to GACA. Twenty-eight people were wounded there, among them two nationals of Bangladesh and the Philippines. The authority said the injuries ranged from light to severe.
At King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, one Sudanese national was killed. Eight people were wounded: five Saudis, two Egyptians and one Pakistani, again with injuries described as ranging from light to severe.
GACA said it was assessing the damage in coordination with the relevant security agencies and had taken all necessary measures to keep passengers and staff safe and to preserve the security and safety of the kingdom's civil aviation system.
Coalition says launch platform destroyed
Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab Coalition, said in a statement that the coalition destroyed the ballistic missile launch platform used in the attack on Riyadh. He said the platform was destroyed in Sana'a, Yemen's capital, while it was being prepared for an attack on Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis had announced that they struck the airports in Riyadh and Abha with ballistic missiles and drones. Milliyet reported the Houthi claim alongside the Saudi statements, and the casualty figures come from GACA, not from the Houthis.
Displacement in Yemen
Separately, the United Nations said more than 200,000 people have left their homes because of the fighting in Yemen, Milliyet reported. The figure adds to the toll of a conflict that has displaced millions over the years and continues to drive civilians from their homes as strikes and counterstrikes continue.
What to watch next: whether the coalition mounts further retaliation inside Yemen, and whether flight operations at Abha and King Khalid airports return to normal after the damage assessments.
