Two more deadly missile attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport over the weekend exposed Saudi Arabia’s glaring air defense deficiencies.
In the most lethal attack of any kind on the country in two decades, 13 people were killed and 309 injured, some critically, when missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi militia struck the airport on Saturday. Parts of the roofs of Terminals 3 and 4, both for domestic flights, collapsed. The dead included a US citizen, four Saudis, two Bangladeshis, an Egyptian, a Palestinian, a Jordanian, a Syrian, a Sudanese and an Indian. Video showed heavy smoke and flames. Flights to and from the airport were suspended.
Yesterday afternoon another missile strike on Terminal 4 killed a Pakistani and injured 11 others. A fire broke out.
Late yesterday a Houthi missile struck Dammam’s King Fahd International Airport in the first known strike in oil-rich Eastern Province of the current Saudi-Houthi war. Passengers aboard a taxiing aircraft saw a projectile strike the tarmac beside several parked jetliners. The aircraft that was taxiing returned to its gate and passengers were told to disembark and leave the airport. No injuries were reported. Flights were suspended.
The Saudi defense establishment failed to intercept the missiles despite two previous deadly attacks on King Khalid International Airport and repeated Houthi declarations that they intended to shut down all commercial air travel in Saudi airspace.
On Thursday, a missile attack killed three Saudi nationals and injured unspecified number of Saudis and foreigners, some seriously. A parked plane of national carrier Saudia Airlines caught fire when hit by shrapnel. It was empty at the time, Saudi officials said.
On Wednesday, a Sudanese man was killed and five Saudis, two Egyptians and one Pakistani were injured.
Those were the first reported casualties in Riyadh since Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis returned to war in July.
The US Embassy in a security alert today said US government employees require special authorization to use the airports in Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah, making clear that it considers the facilities vulnerable to further attack.
The British Foreign Office yesterday warned against all but essential travel to Riyadh Province, Dammam and Jeddah as well as against all but essential use of Saudi airports with the exception of Medina International Airport.
Tellingly, the chief executives of ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP and TotalEnergies withdrew plans to attend the high-profile WPC Energy Conference in Riyadh, which opened yesterday at a convention center six miles (10 kilometers) from King Khalid International Airport.
In another humiliation for the Saudi regime, a ministerial meeting of the International Energy Forum in Riyadh’s famously palatial Ritz-Carlton Hotel yesterday was marred by absences. Italy’s energy minister, a co-host of the event, participated remotely by video link. Germany’s economy minister, who attended in person, was unable to fly out of Riyadh as scheduled today.
Saudi authorities cancelled in-person classes at schools in Riyadh this week, shifting to remote learning.
Several office towers in the capital’s King Abdullah Financial District were evacuated and embassies ordered personnel to shelter in place on Thursday during what widely was reported to be the loudest air attack on the city since Saudi Arabia and the Houthis returned to war.
The recent missile and drone fire on Riyadh has been a response to heightened Saudi aerial bombing in Yemen, including against the main airport in the capital Sanaa, which the Houthis control.
Most Houthi missile and drone attacks continue to target Najran, Jizan and Asir Provinces in the southwestern corner of Saudi Arabia, close to the Yemeni border and the Red Sea.
Jeddah, which is 450 miles (730 kilometers) from the Yemeni border, the nearby mountain resort city of Taif and the oil export city of Yanbu, still farther up the Red Sea coast, have been regular targets.
At least 150 people have been injured and three killed in Houthi missile and drone attacks in the southwest and farther north near the Red Sea coast since 8 September, with the fatalities including a Moroccan woman and an Algerian woman on Wednesday at the international airport in Abha, capital of Asir Province.
In recent weeks, the Houthis also have hit facilities of Saudi state oil conglomerate Aramco. Most of these attacks have occurred in the southwest, but a drone reportedly was shot down today over oil-rich Eastern Province, on the Gulf coast.
In recent weeks, Saudi authorities have been less than forthcoming about Houthi missiles and drones hitting their targets and damage from fallen debris from interceptions.
News reports indicate that interceptors for US-made Patriot anti-missile batteries are running short.
In another worrying development, Houthi missile and drone capabilities clearly have advanced since the 2015-2022 war with Saudi Arabia, when Riyadh and Jeddah occasionally were targeted.
Saudi Arabia is facing its gravest strategic crisis in decades.
Iran today cynically offered to mediate between the Houthis, who it backs but does not control, and the Saudi regime.
But there is no end in sight to the current Saudi-Houthi war, given that Riyadh has no choice but to continue backing a counteroffensive by Yemeni government forces against Houthi forces that recently seized key terrain along Yemen’s southern Red Sea coast, reinforcing a Houthi blockade of Saudi oil tanker traffic.
If the current relatively low intensity combat between Iran and the United States in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf were to escalate, risks of Iranian missile and drone attacks on eastern Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arab countries would increase significantly.
It should be noted that the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), based immediately across the Gulf, has far greater ability to strike Dammam and other points in eastern Saudi Arabia than the Houthis have.
All but critical travel to Saudi Arabia should be put on hold.
Personnel should avoid all Saudi airports. The alternative for Riyadh and Dammam is airports in Bahrain and Qatar, with airports in the United Arab Emirates and in some cases Kuwait fallback options. The alternative for Jeddah and Yanbu is Jordanian airports, if not travel to airports in Gulf Arab countries.
In addition to airports, oil industry facilities, military bases and major government buildings are prime Houthi missile and drone targets and should be avoided.
Personnel throughout Saudi Arabia constantly should monitor security advice from local authorities and their embassies.
The southwestern provinces of Najran, Jizan and Asir should be avoided entirely. Taif ideally should be avoided.
Throughout Saudi Arabia, no information about or images of missile or drone attacks or military-related apparatus should be shared on social media due to the strictly enforced wartime censorship.
Personnel may undertake travel to other countries south of Turkey with the exceptions of Iran, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
Personnel traveling to the Gulf Arab countries, Jordan or Israel constantly should monitor regional tensions. They and their employers should be cognizant that commercial flights could be disrupted if US-Iran hostilities escalate and that employers would bear the responsibility of repatriating stranded personnel.
Personnel in all Gulf Arab countries should steer well clear of US diplomatic facilities, oil and gas infrastructure, and military bases – all of which are potential Iranian missile and drone targets. They should monitor the advice of local authorities and their embassies. In the event of an air attack alert, personnel outdoors should seek shelter and those indoors should give wide berth to windows. High-rises are not ideal places to be during air attack alerts, and those in one should keep in mind that underground parking garages are relatively secure from drones but not immune and that stairways rather than elevators should be used in the event of drone attack or fire.
Personnel in Israel should remain well clear of the border with Lebanon, where a fragile truce is in place between Israeli troops and the local Shia militia Hizbollah, an Iranian proxy. They should familiarize themselves with the nearest bomb shelters and be prepared to heed air attack alerts and related instructions from authorities.
Personnel in Jordan should monitor advisories from local authorities and their embassies.
