Reporting snapshot · 11 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). The casualty figures are those published by Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation and carried by the wires. The Houthis had not claimed responsibility for the Saturday attack at the time of writing, the damage assessment was still under way, and the toll could change. This is a dated snapshot of a fast-moving story.
What happened
An attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh late on Saturday killed at least 12 people and wounded 309, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said, in the deadliest strike on the kingdom in more than a decade. GACA issued the casualty breakdown early on Sunday, Al Jazeera reported.
The dead included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis and one person each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt, according to the Saudi civil aviation authority, as cited by Reuters via Geo News. GACA said some of the wounded were in critical condition and that property damage was still being assessed.
It was the third attack on King Khalid International Airport in a week and the deadliest single strike on Saudi Arabia in more than ten years, the Reuters report said. Two earlier attacks on the same airport killed four people and damaged a parked Saudi commercial aircraft. Operations at the airport were temporarily suspended after Saturday’s attack, and flights to the Saudi capital were diverted or cancelled, The Express Tribune reported, citing Agence France-Presse. Several embassies, including those of the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada, advised their citizens to avoid the airport and surrounding areas.
Who is being blamed
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen blamed the Houthis for the attack on the passenger terminal and called it a “full-fledged war crime”. Its spokesperson, Major-General Turki al-Malki, said the coalition would “respond decisively to this terrorist attack”, and confirmed a separate projectile had fallen near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Al Jazeera reported.
The Houthis had not claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack at the time of writing. The group has repeatedly targeted Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers since a truce in its war with Yemen’s Riyadh-backed government unravelled. It has warned airlines to avoid Saudi airspace, calling any aircraft operating there — except over Mecca and Medina — a target. On Thursday, the Houthi military spokesperson said the group had fired a ballistic missile at the Riyadh airport; GACA said that attack killed three Saudi citizens, including a pilot.
The escalation is the sharpest phase of a renewed Yemen war. Saudi Arabia intervened in 2015, and a 2022 agreement helped freeze the fighting before it unravelled over the summer, culminating in a Houthi advance that seized the Red Sea chokepoint of Bab el-Mandeb from Saudi-backed government forces. The Yemeni government launched a counter-offensive this month, making limited gains as the Houthis placed Taiz under siege.
The US weighs joining the strikes
Asked outside the White House whether Washington would join Saudi strikes on the Houthis, US President Donald Trump said: “We may. We’re going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.” The remarks were carried by Reuters via Geo News.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington “strongly condemns” the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, including Saturday’s strike on King Khalid airport, which he said demonstrated “a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life”. Rubio confirmed that an American was among the dead. The US statement came as the Houthi campaign against Saudi aviation hubs disrupted travel shortly before Riyadh is due to host major energy and investment conferences; organisers said the events would proceed as planned.
Pakistan presses the Security Council
At the United Nations, Pakistan warned the Houthis at the Security Council on Friday and demanded an immediate halt to missile and drone attacks on Saudi civilian and economic infrastructure, The Express Tribune reported. Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, highlighted the threat to regional stability, global energy security and international maritime trade, and called on the 15-member Council to act against the Yemen-based group.
The envoy drew attention to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent statement reaffirming Islamabad’s commitment to the kingdom’s territorial integrity, which he described as “resolute” under the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement. He also demanded that the Houthis cease attacks on commercial shipping around Taiz and Bab el-Mandeb, said freedom of navigation must be upheld, and supported UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg’s peace efforts. Ambassador Ahmad is soon to leave his post to become Pakistan’s foreign secretary.
For Pakistan, the strike lands at a delicate moment. About two million Pakistanis work in Saudi Arabia and their remittances are a pillar of the current account, giving Islamabad a stake in Gulf security. But Pakistan has also positioned itself as a mediator in the wider US-Iran conflict and has drawn a deliberately defensive line around its role in the Makkah pact. On 9 October, the Foreign Office said Pakistani forces under the agreement would defend Saudi territory but would not cross into Yemen, after Reuters reported the earlier airport strikes on 7-8 October and Trump publicly welcomed the Pakistani-Turkish deployment. PIA temporarily suspended its Islamabad-Riyadh service after those strikes.
What is still uncertain
The central open question is attribution. Saudi Arabia and its coalition blame the Houthis, and the group has not denied the campaign, but it also had not claimed Saturday’s attack, and no independent verification of the specific weapon or launch is available. Claims by the warring parties in Yemen have been difficult to confirm, with access for journalists restricted.
The casualty figures remain provisional: GACA said the injury count was still being assessed and described a “serious emergency” response, with hospitals around the capital calling in additional doctors. Further deaths among the critically wounded are possible, and the damage assessment at the airport is incomplete.
It is also unclear how far the response will escalate. Trump said only that the US would “look at” joining strikes; he did not say what support Washington might provide. Whether the Makkah pact’s collective-defence clause is formally invoked, and what that would mean for Pakistani forces already in the kingdom, has not been published. And with Riyadh’s air defences under scrutiny after the third strike this week, the effect on regional aviation, energy markets and the planned conferences is still unfolding.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published reporting, not eyewitness coverage. Sources were reviewed on 11 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). This is a fast-moving breaking story for which no single primary record of the Saturday attack was published at the time of writing, so the account relies on three editorially independent international outlets. The casualty breakdown and the "deadliest in more than a decade" framing are drawn from the Reuters report carried by Geo News and from the Al Jazeera report, both citing Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation. Pakistan's Security Council statement is drawn from the Agence France-Presse report carried by The Express Tribune. KhabarWire did not attend any briefing and attributes all quotations to the outlets that carried them.
- Al Jazeera — Attack on Riyadh airport kills 12, injures over 300, Saudi Arabia saysPublished 10 October 2026 · The GACA casualty statement and nationalities, the Saudi-led coalition's "war crime" accusation and al-Malki's response, the Dammam projectile, Rubio's condemnation, embassy advisories and the earlier Thursday strike.
- Geo News (Reuters) — US may join Saudi strikes on Houthis after Riyadh attack kills 12, wounds over 300Published 11 October 2026 · The 12 dead and 309 wounded, the deadliest strike in over a decade, the third attack on the airport this week, the diversion and cancellation of flights, and Trump's verbatim remarks.
- The Express Tribune (AFP/Agencies) — Houthis mount fresh missiles attack on KSA airportPublished 11 October 2026 · Pakistan's UN Security Council warning by Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, the "resolute" Makkah-pact commitment, the airport suspension and embassy warnings, and eyewitness accounts.
- Al Jazeera — Iran war live: 12 killed in Riyadh, US weighs joining fight against HouthisPublished 11 October 2026 · Confirms the GACA toll, the coalition's interception of a drone towards the eastern region, and that Trump would "take a look" at joining strikes while Rubio confirmed an American was killed.
- Al Jazeera — Saudi Arabia reopens Riyadh airport after Houthi attack kills threePublished 9 October 2026 · The earlier Thursday attack on King Khalid airport that killed three Saudis, including a pilot, providing the comparison for the latest and largest strike.
