Deadliest strike on Saudi soil in a decade

The strike on King Khalid International Airport killed 12 people and wounded more than 300, making it the deadliest attack on Saudi territory in over a decade. According to the civil aviation authority, 309 people were wounded, some of them in serious condition.

The dead came from several countries:

• •Four Saudi citizens
• •Two Bangladeshis
• •One US citizen
• •One Egyptian
• •One Jordanian
• •One Syrian
• •One Palestinian
• •One Sudanese

Saturday's attack was the deadliest in the kingdom since May 2015, when a suicide bombing by the Islamic State killed 21 worshippers at a Shia mosque in Qatif governorate. An eyewitness described the scene at the terminal: "I saw 401 hit, I saw injured in front of my eyes. Everyone was running."

Coalition calls attack a war crime

The coalition on Sunday blamed the Iran-backed Houthis for the strike and said it would respond decisively. Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Malki said the attack "constitutes a full-fledged war crime," in a statement on X. A diplomatic source attributed the strike to a missile.

The Houthis claimed a series of attacks on the airport on Thursday that killed three people and damaged a plane, but did not immediately claim Saturday's strike. The coalition said earlier that it had intercepted missiles targeting Saudi Arabia and destroyed launch platforms.

Airport shut, city on alert

Operations at the airport were suspended after the attack, and authorities said damage assessments were ongoing. Health officials activated a rare mass call-up of doctors to deal with the "serious emergency situation," a medical source said.

• •Two doctors told AFP that several pilgrims headed to Mecca were among the wounded.
• •The education ministry ordered all schools in Riyadh to switch to distance learning for the entire week, the second such switch in a month.
• •The US, Canadian, German and Spanish embassies warned citizens to avoid the airport, and a senior Western diplomat said several were banning staff use of it "over the next week".

The attack came on the eve of Saudi Arabia's high-profile convention and entertainment season, which begins this month.

Diplomatic fallout and Yemen front

US President Donald Trump, asked on Saturday whether he had changed his mind about joining Saudi strikes on the Houthis, said: "We may." He said he would be speaking with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, calling what happened in the kingdom "not acceptable". US media have reported that previous Saudi requests for US military assistance against the Houthis were rebuffed.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the "heinous attack" and reaffirmed Islamabad's commitment to Saudi Arabia's security under their defence pact.

The strike came during an unprecedented wave of Houthi attacks on the kingdom since a truce in the group's long-running war with Yemen's Riyadh-backed government unravelled in July. Saudi Arabia has led an international coalition supporting Yemen's government militarily since 2015, and the UN-brokered truce collapsed in July after four years.

Inside Yemen, Saudi-supported government forces were advancing against the Houthis in areas the group captured last month around the Bab al-Mandab strait. The Yemeni government last week announced a counter-offensive aimed at retaking all areas held by the Houthis, while the Houthis claimed to have repelled the attacks in Bab al-Mandab. Claims by the warring parties have been impossible to independently verify amid fast-moving conditions and difficult access for journalists.

Airport operations remain suspended while authorities carry out damage assessments.