Houthi Attacks on Riyadh and Abha Airports: What Saudi Arabia Has Confirmed

Attacks on Abha International Airport and Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on 6 and 7 October 2026 killed three people and wounded 36, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said. Yemen’s Houthis claimed both attacks and said they used ballistic missiles and drones. The Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted a ballistic missile north of Riyadh, destroyed the launcher and hit 82 Houthi targets in response. On 8 October explosions were heard in Riyadh, and Reuters reported smoke rising from a parked aircraft at the capital’s airport. Saudi authorities had not confirmed that incident at the time of writing. Here is what each side has said, and what has not been established.

Photo: The terminal of Abha International Airport, February 2026 (file photo, cropped). Credit: Clemens Schmillen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Saudi Arabia has confirmed

GACA’s statement, issued late on Wednesday 7 October and carried by the Saudi Press Agency, said facilities at both airports were “subjected to attacks” on Tuesday and Wednesday. It did not say which airport was hit on which day, and it did not name who carried out the attacks. According to Reuters, the BBC and Al Jazeera, it gave these casualty figures:

• Abha International Airport, in Asir province near the Yemeni border: two people killed and 28 wounded. Both dead were women residents, named in GACA’s statement as Moroccan and Algerian nationals. (AFP’s account described them as Egyptian and Algerian.) Saudi citizens and Bangladeshi and Filipino residents were among the wounded.
• King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh: one person killed, a Sudanese resident, and eight wounded. The wounded were five Saudi citizens, two Egyptian residents and one Pakistani resident, with injuries from minor to critical.

GACA said the injured were taken to hospital and that the attacks caused property damage. It did not describe the weapons used or what part of each airport was struck.

What the Houthis claim

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group attacked both airports with ballistic missiles and drones, describing the strikes as a response to “Saudi aggression” and to what he said were 60 Saudi air and missile strikes in the previous 24 hours, the BBC reported. In separate statements he said Riyadh’s airport had been targeted with “several drones” and, on Wednesday, with a ballistic missile that “led to a disruption of air traffic”. AFP reported that Saree also claimed strikes on King Khalid Air Base at Khamis Mushait, near Abha. Saudi Arabia has not commented on that claim. On Thursday 8 October the Houthis said they had again fired a ballistic missile at King Khalid International Airport, according to Reuters.

These are the group’s own statements. Apart from GACA’s casualty figures, none of the claimed hits has been independently confirmed.

The coalition’s response

Major General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition, said on Wednesday that a Houthi ballistic missile had been intercepted and destroyed north of Riyadh. He said the coalition was tracking the launch platform over Houthi-held Sanaa, and it later said on X that it had “destroyed the ballistic missile launch platform”. Late on Wednesday it said the airport attacks “will not go unpunished”. It then announced strikes on 82 Houthi military targets in Saada, Hodeidah, al-Jawf and Marib provinces. According to the coalition, these included “11 mountain-based ballistic missile storages in Saada”, command and control centres, communications systems and weapons stores. The coalition has not published imagery or a damage assessment for these strikes.

Saudi Arabia’s defence against ballistic missiles relies mainly on US-supplied Patriot batteries and, more recently, THAAD. The coalition has not said which system made Wednesday’s interception. DefenceMENA’s guide to Saudi Arabia’s military strength and its look at alternatives to Patriot in the region set out that layer in more detail.

Aden airport and the 8 October incidents

The same day, the Houthis fired at Aden International Airport, the main air gateway for the parts of Yemen held by the internationally recognised government. Yemen’s Transport Ministry said at least two ballistic missiles and several drones targeted the runway and the passenger terminal. One missile landed near the runway minutes before a Yemeni flight from Cairo was due to land, and the flight was diverted to Jeddah. The ministry said the terminal was evacuated. The Houthis said they had targeted “Saudi military supplies” arriving at the Badr camp near the airport.

On Thursday 8 October AFP journalists heard several explosions in Riyadh. Later that day Reuters reported that smoke had been seen rising from a stationary aircraft at Riyadh airport, citing a witness and three people briefed on the matter, who said the aircraft was believed to have been empty. There was no official Saudi confirmation, and the cause had not been stated. The report spread quickly on X, including through Clash Report. Posts presenting it as a confirmed missile hit on an airliner go beyond what Reuters reported.

Air traffic has been disrupted. Flights at King Khalid International were suspended for more than an hour on Wednesday morning, The National reported. By Thursday morning Flightradar24 listed 58 departures delayed and 11 cancelled. The US embassy in Riyadh warned its citizens to expect possible “flight cancellations, airspace closures and travel disruptions”.

Why the airport strikes matter

Abha lies close to the Yemeni border, and the Houthis struck its airport repeatedly during the earlier phase of the war. Riyadh is much further away. Hitting King Khalid International requires longer-range missiles or drones. AFP noted that this was the second time that week the Houthis had claimed an attack on Riyadh’s main airport. A fuel storage area at the same airport was seen burning on 19 September.

The strikes come as Yemen’s war has reignited on several fronts. After a truce that largely held from April 2022, fighting resumed in July. In September the Houthis seized the port of Mocha and much of Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Government forces, backed by coalition air power, launched a counteroffensive this week that the Presidential Leadership Council has named “Dawn of Yemen”. Its battlefield claims around Dhubab and the Bab al-Mandeb strait are tracked in our Dhubab explainer. On 5 October Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan activated their Mecca defence pact for the first time, citing the Houthi attacks. That decision is explained in our report on the Mecca alliance deployment. Reuters reported on 7 October that Türkiye was sending mainly defensive and technical support, citing two officials.

The UN Secretary-General condemned “the continued Houthi cross-border attacks” on Saudi Arabia. Kuwait and Egypt also condemned the airport strikes. The International Organization for Migration says more than 200,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen since the latest fighting began.

What is confirmed and what is not

• Confirmed by Saudi authorities: attacks on facilities at Abha and King Khalid international airports on 6–7 October; three killed and 36 wounded.
• Confirmed by the coalition (its own account): a ballistic missile intercepted north of Riyadh on 7 October; strikes on 82 Houthi targets in four provinces.
• Claimed by the Houthis, not independently verified: ballistic missile and drone hits on both airports and on King Khalid Air Base, and a further missile at Riyadh on 8 October.
• Reported, not officially confirmed: smoke from an empty parked aircraft at Riyadh airport on 8 October (Reuters, citing a witness and three people briefed).
• Not yet known: which weapon caused the casualties at each airport, which day each airport was hit, and what the coalition’s strikes destroyed.

Sources

• Saudi Press Agency: GACA — Attacks target facilities at Abha International Airport and King Khalid International Airport (7 October 2026)
• Reuters (via Al-Monitor): Attacks on Saudi airports kill three people, as fighting escalates in Yemen (7 October 2026)
• BBC News: Three people killed in Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia airports, officials say (8 October 2026)
• Al Jazeera: Three killed, 36 injured in Houthi attacks on Saudi airports, Riyadh says (7 October 2026)
• Al Jazeera: Yemen’s Houthis attack Aden airport; Saudi forces down missile near Riyadh (7 October 2026)
• Al Jazeera / Reuters: Yemeni government forces claim 1,860 Houthis ‘neutralised’ (8 October 2026)
• France 24 / AFP: Explosions heard in Saudi capital Riyadh after Houthis’ deadly attacks on airports (8 October 2026)
• Reuters (via Devdiscourse): Smoke seen rising from aircraft at Riyadh airport (8 October 2026)
• The National: Riyadh airport flights delayed and cancelled after Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia (8 October 2026)
• Clash Report on X: Riyadh airport aircraft smoke report, citing Reuters (8 October 2026)

Evidence note: Casualty figures are GACA’s. Weapon types and hits are attributed to the party that claimed them. This page will be updated at the same URL as Saudi or coalition statements add detail.