Cairo, Oct 13. (dpa/GNA) – At least one person has died in an attack on the international airport in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, the Saudi civil aviation authority said.
A Pakistani national was killed in the late Sunday attack, and at least 11 others were injured, the authority said in a statement on X early on Monday.
The attack had caused property damage, the extent of which was being assessed, the authority said. It was the second attack on the airport in as many days, with at least 12 killed and more than 300 others injured in a Saturday attack.
The aviation authority also reported an attack on King Fahd Airport in Dammam on Sunday, that had caused damage.
Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for the attacks and warned, that the kingdom’s airports and airspace were “legitimate targets” for the Iran-aligned militia, with the exception of Mecca and Medina, which are sites sacred to Muslims.
The Houthis said they had carried out four attacks in Saudi Arabia in the previous 24 hours, using ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones.
According to their report, the targets included the two airports, a gas plant and an oil refinery, belonging to the state-owned oil company Aramco. The militia said Saudi Arabia had carried out more than 120 airstrikes on the capital, Sana’a, and other provinces during that period. It was not possible to independently verify these claims.
The allied states of the R4 Group, consisting of Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, jointly condemned the attacks by the Houthi militia as a “flagrant violation of the Kingdom’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
In a statement, the group spoke of “a direct threat to its security, stability, and the safety of civilians, and it is a dangerous escalation that cannot be justified or accepted under any pretext.”
The Houthis have been fighting Yemen’s internationally recognized government for more than a decade.
A truce reached in 2022 largely froze the conflict, but failed to pave the way for a lasting peace.
Fighting has recently flared up again against the backdrop of the wider war involving Iran, further deepening Yemen’s humanitarian crisis.
Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest oil producers, has previously blamed the Houthis for attacks on civilian facilities in the kingdom and launched retaliatory strikes against rebel targets in Yemen.
GNA