Two Women Among Dead as Strikes Hit Saudi Airports

The announcements at two Saudi airports carried news no traveler expects: three people dead, dozens more hurt, journeys cut short by explosions at places they had trusted to be safe. Among the victims were two women, one Moroccan and one Algerian, killed in the strike on Abha International Airport in Asir province, which borders Yemen. A Sudanese man died in a separate attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said 28 people were injured at Abha and eight more at the Riyadh airport. The injured were immediately transferred to hospitals. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attacks, which Arab governments and regional organizations swiftly condemned as violations of international law and threats to civilian safety.

For the families of those killed, and for the travelers and airport workers caught in the strikes, the aftermath is measured in hospital wards and funeral prayers. Officials across the region directed their words to exactly those people. GCC Secretary-General Jassim Al-Budaiwi offered condolences to the families of the dead and wished the injured a speedy recovery, while condemning what he called Houthi “terrorist attacks” on the two airports. He described the strikes as a “serious escalation” and a flagrant violation of international laws and norms, saying GCC countries stood united with Saudi Arabia against threats to its security, stability and sovereignty.

Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry focused on the people airports are meant to protect. Targeting civilian facilities and endangering the lives of travelers and workers, it said, constituted a criminal act and a blatant violation of international law. The ministry added that Saudi Arabia’s security was integral to Bahrain’s own and to that of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Jordan, too, framed the attacks in human terms, calling them a blatant violation of Saudi sovereignty and a threat to its security and stability, as well as a breach of international law and the UN Charter. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Fuad Al-Majali affirmed his country’s solidarity with Saudi Arabia and supported the measures the Kingdom has taken to protect its security.

Syria and Egypt both voiced full solidarity with the Kingdom. Damascus said it supported Saudi Arabia in confronting threats to its security, territorial integrity and civilian facilities, and wished those injured a speedy recovery. The Syrian Foreign Ministry said targeting airports and civilian facilities violated international law and the principles protecting civilians and civilian objects, and that such attacks threatened the safety of civil aviation.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Egyptians Abroad called for an end to the Houthi attacks and for efforts to protect regional security and stability. “Egypt affirms that the escalation and attacks on the Kingdom’s territory, and the threat they pose to its security and stability, represent a destabilization of the security and stability of the entire region,” the ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, religious and professional bodies joined the condemnation. The Muslim World League, in a statement from its General Secretariat, denounced what it described as the Houthis’ continued attacks against Saudi Arabia. Its secretary-general and chairman of the Organization of Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, called the attacks acts of terrorism that violate religious values, international law and humanitarian principles, and condemned the targeting of civilians and civilian facilities as part of a broader pattern by the militia. The General Secretariat of the Arab Interior Ministers Council likewise denounced what it called the Houthis’ continued and repeated targeting of civilians and civilian property in Saudi Arabia.

The strikes came amid a sharp escalation in fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces along Yemen’s western Red Sea coast and near the strategic Bab Al-Mandab Strait. The renewed fighting has followed years of relative calm and raised wider concerns over threats to civilian infrastructure, energy facilities and vital maritime routes. For the injured lying in Saudi hospitals and the families of the three killed, those concerns are no longer abstractions but lived reality, and the question now is whether the escalation along the Red Sea coast will draw in more civilians before it subsides.