Video released Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, by Saudi Arabia’s Media Ministry captures the instant a Houthi missile detonated inside the passenger terminal at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, an attack on Saturday, Oct. 10, that killed 13 people, including an American citizen, and injured 309 others.
In the surveillance footage, travelers stand in orderly lines, waiting. Then the blast. Smoke swallows the hall as a fire takes hold, passengers dive for cover and others sprint through security checkpoints. Airport workers crouch beneath their desks as pieces of the roof come down toward the floor.
Other security-camera video released by Saudi authorities showed travelers, many in white pilgrim robes, standing in line moments before a fireball sent them scrambling as flaming debris fell from the ceiling.
The Dead and the Wounded
Saudi authorities initially counted 12 dead and 309 injured, several of them critically. The toll rose to 13 on Sunday, Oct. 11, when Mohammed Yusuf Ali, an Indian national from Hyderabad’s Mehdipatnam, died of his wounds, according to the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, which confirmed the death in a post on X. His two sons and an aunt were also hurt. Of the 11 Indians injured, three remained in intensive care in stable condition and two in general wards, while the others were discharged.
A Saudi statement listed the other victims as four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshis, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Palestinian, one Syrian, one Sudanese and one American. Officials have not released the victims’ names. Egyptian media reports identified Azza Ramzi Mohamed Hassan, 28, a flight attendant with the Saudi carrier flynas, among the dead. The Syrian Embassy identified Buthaina Ahmad Oweida, a widow and mother of four who had been living in Makkah and was returning from visiting her sister in Riyadh, her niece told The Associated Press.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said six Pakistani nationals were injured. Philippines Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said three Filipinos were hurt, two of them recovering in intensive care units at Riyadh hospitals. An Omani doctor was wounded while traveling to Jeddah to perform Umrah; Saudi Arabia’s health minister visited him in the hospital.
A Second Strike on Terminal 4
The airport was hit again on Sunday, Oct. 11, when an unidentified projectile struck Terminal 4 and started a fire. Saudi civil aviation authorities said one person was killed and 11 others wounded, bringing the death toll from the two strikes to at least 14. Saudi authorities said the person killed was a Pakistani national, without naming the victim. Coalition forces said air defenses intercepted and destroyed a cruise missile in the vicinity of the airport that day, and later reported a drone destroyed in the Eastern Province and a ballistic missile aimed at Khamis Mushait intercepted. Emergency alerts sounded in Abha, in the south, early Monday, Oct. 12, before the Saudi Civil Defense said the danger had passed.
Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesperson, claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack in a televised speech on Sunday, Oct. 11, and said the group had also struck King Fahd International Airport in Dammam and two Saudi Aramco facilities. A passenger on a plane taxiing at Dammam told Reuters a projectile struck the tarmac near parked aircraft at about 8:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) on Sunday, Oct. 11, starting a fire. The Houthis said the strikes answered Saudi attacks in Yemen, asserting that a Saudi strike on a home in Sanaa killed a child and wounded six others and that the kingdom had carried out 124 airstrikes in Yemen over the preceding 24 hours.
“We urge everyone to take our warnings seriously, and Saudi Arabia bears responsibility for any failed interceptions,” the group said earlier Sunday, Oct. 11, renewing its warning against using Saudi airports.
Flights Canceled Across the Region
King Khalid International Airport has been struck four times in five days and has been closed since Saturday’s attack, the deadliest in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade. Hundreds of flights scheduled to arrive at or depart from Riyadh were canceled Monday, Oct. 12, according to Flightradar24 data. Emirates, Etihad Airways, flydubai and Air Arabia reported cancellations and schedule changes on routes between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and Air India canceled its Riyadh flights until Oct. 15. A five-day WPC Energy conference opened as planned on Sunday, Oct. 11, at a Riyadh convention center.
The U.S. Embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia warned Americans to watch for flight cancellations and airspace closures, noting that U.S. government employees need special authorization to use King Khalid airport. Canada told its citizens to avoid the Riyadh airport, and Britain’s embassy warned British nationals to stay away from every Saudi airport except Medina, including Jeddah and Dammam, unless their trip was essential. U.S. aviation authorities told American carriers to use caution flying to or over Saudi Arabia.
Maj. Gen. Turki Al Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, called the attack a war crime, and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the strikes as a violation of Saudi sovereignty. President Donald Trump said Saturday, Oct. 10, that the United States was considering joining Saudi strikes on the Houthis, while Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on Telegram that he had told his Saudi counterpart Tehran was ready to facilitate dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Saudi energy minister, Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman, said the kingdom’s answer “must be equally serious.”