Thick black smoke rose over Riyadh’s main airport on Thursday, October 8, and a Saudi state-carrier jet seems to have burned at its gate, as Yemen’s Houthis pushed their missile campaign deeper into Saudi Arabia. Three people briefed on the matter told Reuters that shrapnel, either from an interception or from another projectile, left a Saudia Airlines plane heavily damaged after it caught fire while parked at a terminal. Reuters verified video showing a column of smoke and flames over the airport. Images that CNN verified show smoke over Terminal 4 at King Khalid International Airport and what CNN describes as an apparently damaged Saudi aircraft. The people who spoke to Reuters said they believed no passengers sat aboard, though they could not rule out injuries.
The Houthis claimed the hit. “Our armed forces targeted King Khalid Airport in Riyadh at midday with a ballistic missile that hit its target,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said, Euronews reports, in what Euronews describes as the group’s second missile attack on the airport. CNN says the group also claimed cruise and ballistic missile strikes Thursday on Najran Airport near the Yemeni border and on the Royal Saudi Air Force’s King Khalid Air Base, offering no evidence of damage. CNN says the group offered no evidence for those wider claims, and this desk could not verify them.
Saudi officials kept their account narrow. The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said it destroyed two ballistic missiles launched toward Riyadh and a third aimed at Khamis Mushayt, home to a major air base, Reuters reports, citing coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki’s post on X. Saudi officials said debris from an intercepted missile struck a kindergarten and a medical complex in the capital, according to Reuters and CNN, and Saudi civil defence reported “material damage” to buildings from falling shrapnel, Euronews says. Saudi authorities did not directly address whether anything hit the airport, CNN reports, and the government media office, the civil aviation authority, and Saudia did not answer Reuters’ requests for comment.
The strike landed on top of a deadly week for Saudi airports. Saudi authorities said on Wednesday that strikes on King Khalid airport and on Abha airport in the southwest killed three people, Reuters reports. Officials cited by Euronews say the Abha attack killed Moroccan and Algerian residents and wounded 28 others, while the earlier Riyadh drone attack killed a Sudanese national and wounded eight; CNN puts the two-day toll at three dead and 36 wounded. The Saudi General Authority for Civil Aviation blamed no party for those airport attacks, Euronews notes, but the coalition later blamed the Houthis and wrote on X that the attacks “will not go unpunished.”
Travel took the hit next. Lufthansa and Air India said they would suspend flights to Riyadh, Reuters reports. Cirium data showed almost half of departures from Riyadh airport canceled by 1500 GMT Thursday, with 31 more cancellations expected for Friday across Saudi airports, and FlightRadar24 showed widespread delays. The airport told passengers on X to check flight status with their airlines before heading out, Euronews reports. The U.S. Mission in Saudi Arabia said it knew of attacks targeting the Riyadh airport, warned Americans to stay vigilant, and said U.S. government staff now need special authorization to use the airport, CNN reports. Several multinational firms in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District sent staff home to work after loud booms Thursday morning, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters, which could not identify the source of the booms.
The Houthis now aim threats at Saudi energy too. Saree told employees at Saudi oil facilities to leave areas the group considers targets and repeated warnings to airlines, airports, and travelers, Euronews reports (paraphrased, not quoted). He also warned international airlines “for the last time” against flying in Saudi airspace, carving out the skies over Mecca and Medina, according to Euronews. In a televised speech, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said, “The Yemeni people today possess all the determination and elements of strength, regardless of how long the war lasts,” CNN reports. Reuters notes Riyadh plans to host the WPC Energy Congress this week.
The airport strikes sit inside a reignited Yemeni war. The Houthis say they target the kingdom over its support for Yemeni government forces, and Saudi Arabia says it backs an offensive by Yemen’s UN-recognized government to retake territory, Reuters reports. Saudi-backed forces call the push Operation “Dawn of Yemen,” CNN says, and claim gains near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Mocha, and Dhubab, which the Houthis dispute. Yemen’s government claims 1,729 strikes and 1,370 Houthi fighters killed, while the Houthis accuse Saudi warplanes of 59 strikes in 24 hours; CNN says it cannot verify either set of figures. Reuters puts displacement at 200,000 people since fighting resumed, and Euronews, citing UN data, says more than 200,000 since July.
Allies weigh in at the edges. Turkey said on Wednesday it would send mainly defensive and technical support to the kingdom, Reuters reports, and one U.S. and one Syrian defence official told Reuters that Syria has weighed military help, while a Syrian diplomat said Damascus stands with Riyadh but focuses on its own recovery. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War wrote that “the Houthis believe that they can maximise Saudi economic costs and compel Saudi Arabia to surrender to Houthi demands by striking civilian infrastructure, such as oil facilities and airports,” Euronews reports. In Washington, President Trump said on Truth Social Thursday evening that the U.S. held productive discussions with Iran and would not attack Iran before the November 3 midterms, The Independent reports.
