История
12 окт. 2026 г.
Riyadh Airport Attacks Raise Pressure for Saudi Response as Yemen Conflict Deepens
Repeated strikes on Riyadh’s main airport have brought civilian aviation to a halt and intensified Saudi calls for a firm response. The Houthis say the attacks answer Saudi military action in Yemen, where both sides report further civilian harm.
The repeated strikes on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport have turned a key civilian hub into the most visible front in the renewed Yemen war. Saudi Arabia is weighing how forcefully to respond while the Houthis link their campaign to the kingdom’s military role across the border.
Saudi authorities said a projectile struck a passenger terminal on Sunday, killing a Pakistani resident and injuring 11 people; it followed a missile strike the previous day that Saudi accounts said killed 13 people and injured more than 300. The airport was hit four times in five days, according to reporting on the attacks.1 Flights were extendedly suspended while officials assessed the site’s safety and warned of continuing missile and drone threats.2
Riyadh’s public message has stressed deterrence. Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said, “The events of recent weeks are serious. Our response must be equally serious.”3 That position casts the strikes as assaults on civilian infrastructure and national security, with consequences reaching beyond the airport to energy installations, commercial shipping and air travel.
The Houthis accept responsibility for the airport attacks but offer a sharply different account of their purpose. They say the launches are retaliation for what they call “brutal Saudi aggression” in areas of western Yemen under their control, including strikes they say hit Sanaa and its airport.3 Houthi-run health authorities said a child was killed and six people wounded in a Saudi air strike on a home in Sanaa, an allegation Saudi Arabia had not publicly addressed.3
The competing narratives converge on one point: the escalation is harming civilians on both sides. Reporting from Yemen also described intensified Saudi air operations around Taiz, where the governor warned that medicine shortages could soon undermine emergency and intensive-care services.2 Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he was considering whether Washington should join Saudi strikes, adding another potential layer to an already regional conflict.4