Houthis ‘destroy passenger jet’ at Riyadh’s international airport

DAILYMAIL.COM • 4h ago

By ELIANA SILVER, SENIOR FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER 07:47 09 Oct 2026, updated 09:08 09 Oct 2026

Houthi rebels used cruise missiles to destroy a passenger jet at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Thursday.

Yemen’s Houthis have escalated their campaign of strikes against Saudi Arabia on Thursday, trying to shut down the kingdom’s airspace and oil facilities with missile fire that has also killed three people this week.

The group said it had struck the Riyadh airport and warned workers to stay away from energy plants, which would also be targeted.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the militant group hit the airport with two cruise missiles, heavily danmaging the passenger plane, and struck Najran airport and the Khamis Mushair airbase with ballistic missiles in the same operation.

On Thursday the missile strike at the airport set fire to a commercial aircraft belonging to Saudi state carrier Saudia Airlines. The plane had been parked at the terminal, which is roughly 20 miles north from the capital, and is thought to have been empty.

King Khalid believes no one was aboard but said it could not rule out any injuries as a result of the incident.

Meanwhile, a thick black column of smoke and flames were shown rising from the airport. The blaze has since been put out.

Saudi Arabia’s government media office, its civil aviation authority and Saudia Airlines did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Lufthansa and Air India have suspended all flights to Riyadh following the attacks.

In separate strikes, Saudi officials said debris from an intercepted missile had hit a kindergarten and medical complex in Riyadh.

The strikes follow the reignition of the Yemeni civil war, a conflict that began in 2014 when the militant group attempted to overthrow the country’s government, which is backed by a Saudi Arabian-led military coalition.

The Houthi rebels say they are attacking Saudi Arabia for supporting Yemen’s government, while the Saudis maintain they are only helping the UN-recognised government retake territory.

As regional chaos deepens, the kingdom has requested urgent logistical and defensive support from allies such as Turkey and Pakistan to reverse Houthi gains near the strategic Red Sea entrance.

Media reports indicate Syria is even weighing military aid to assist the Saudis, though Syrian presidential advisers have since denied any plans to deploy troops.

These military appeals have taken on major urgency after Houthi missile and drone strikes on the Riyadh and Abha airports killed three people.

The Saudi-led military coalition intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles heading for Riyadh and a third targeting a major airbase in Khamis Mushayt, as the group continues to focus its strikes on Saudi airports.

The attacks have caused widespread travel disruption. Aviation data company Cirium reported that nearly half of all departures from Riyadh’s airport were cancelled by 3pm UK time, with dozens more cancellations expected across the kingdom.

Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 also showed widespread arrival and departure delays at King Khalid International Airport.

The airport advised travellers to contact airlines to check the status of flights before trying to travel.

Riyadh is due to host a major meeting of energy policy makers, the WPC Energy Congress, this week.

Several multinational firms based in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) told staff to work from home after loud booms were heard on Thursday morning, five people familiar with the matter said, including some affected staff.

Some diplomats said they had received warnings, and certain schools in Riyadh told parents there were orders to shelter in place, though authorities did not issue a public alert.

Yemen’s long-running civil war, which paused with a ceasefire in 2022, has erupted again in recent weeks with the Houthis seizing stretches of the Red Sea coast last month, including along the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Their threats to shipping and attacks on Saudi cities and infrastructure have drawn the kingdom back in.

This week, Saudi-backed forces launched a counterattack, taking back some areas around the strait.

However, in a war with several front lines, the Houthis have made gains of their own, surrounding Yemen’s third-largest city, Taiz, by taking territory along its main mountain road to Aden.

The fighting, which pits the Houthis against a coalition of Saudi-backed forces under the internationally recognised government, has led to a humanitarian crisis in the poorest Arab state, displacing 200,000 people since the conflict resumed.

One US and one Syrian defence official said Syria was carefully considering options for military support, including defensive aid to protect Saudi Arabia from attacks, or an offensive deployment to help take the fight to the Houthis.

In response to a request for comment to the Syrian foreign ministry, a diplomat said Syria stood firmly with Saudi Arabia but that its focus was on domestic priorities such as recovery from its own civil war.

Nato-member Turkey said on Wednesday it was sending mainly defensive and technical support to the kingdom to help in the fight against the Houthis. A Turkish official said this was expected to take the form of military equipment, intelligence sharing and weapons systems.

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