Iran war updates: 12 killed in attack on Riyadh airport – Saudi authorities

Our 24-hour coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran, the fighting in Yemen and Israeli attacks on Gaza continues.

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We will be closing this live page shortly, but before we do, here’s a recap of the day’s major developments:

• The Saudi Civil Aviation Authority said an attack on King Khalid International airport in Riyadh has killed at least 12 people and injured 309 others.
• Saudi-led coalition forces said a projectile has fallen in the vicinity of Saudi’s King Fahd International airport in Dammam.
• A tanker reported being hit by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire on board, according to ⁠⁠⁠⁠UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).
• UKMTO also said multiple ship captains near the UAE’s Ras al-Khaimah have been “directed via VHF broadcast to move from their anchorages”.
• Trump said the US may join Saudi Arabia in attacking the Houthis following the latest Riyadh attack, adding that he is considering resuming strikes on Iran.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen has said the attack on King Khalid airport in Riyadh constitutes a “full-blown war crime”.

Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said in a statement on Sunday that the attack, which he blamed on the Houthis, is a “terrorist act that will be met with a firm response”.

“The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition will respond to this terrorist attack firmly and in accordance with international humanitarian law and its customary rules,” the statement read.

Saudi authorities said the Saturday attack killed 12 people and injured 309 others.

The Houthis have not claimed the attack.

The Yemeni government’s army has intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia’s Al-Kharj Governorate, according to a spokesman for the Saudi-backed coalition, Turki al-Maliki.

Located about 80km (50 miles) southeast of Riyadh, Al-Kharj hosts the Prince Sultan airbase, jointly operated by Saudi and US forces.

The announcement on X followed a deadly strike on the King Khalid airbase on Saturday, which Yemeni government forces also blamed on the Iran-aligned Houthis.

Jordan has confirmed that a Jordanian national was killed and four others were injured in the attack on King Khalid International airport in Riyadh.

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that two injured Jordanians were discharged from hospital while two others were still receiving treatment.

The statement condemned “the attacks launched by the Houthi militia against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, targeting civilians as well as civilian and economic facilities.”

Saudi authorities said the Saturday attack killed 12 people and injured 309 others. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack.

A third attack this week on King Khalid International airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital has injured several people, according to the country’s Civil Aviation Authority.

Video showed damage inside the building:

Hurricane Isaias has left a path of extensive damage and claimed lives. It also disrupted oil production and supplies in the Gulf of Mexico.

The US federal government says it’s now releasing four million barrels of oil from the world’s largest emergency oil stockpile to help with energy production.

The Department of Energy authorised exchanges of up to two million barrels each for ExxonMobil and BP America. The companies must return to oil in 2027 with an additional premium of barrels at no additional cost to taxpayers.

The energy secretary says this is meant to keep refineries operating and to help maintain affordable and reliable energy for Americans.

This hurricane is already stressing a system impacted by conflicts overseas.

The wars in Iran and Ukraine have depleted a large chunk of this oil stockpile, which currently has about 283 million barrels of crude, the fewest since 1982.

Of course, the prices of diesel and gas have also been a top concern and a big issue, especially for voters in the midterm elections here in America.

On Friday, President Donald Trump also announced an agreement with Russia to obtain diesel in order to help reduce those high prices, which hit particularly hard the agricultural community in America.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was very public in criticising President Trump over this agreement, saying that it is a weak decision that would only help benefit Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.

At the White House, just before he was about to campaign for Republican candidates in Tennessee, Trump lashed out at Zelenskyy, saying that he needed to be replaced as a leader, accusing Ukraine of the high diesel prices for attacking Russian oil refineries.

Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have already expressed concerns about this diesel deal.

Palestine has condemned recent attacks on Saudi Arabia, including the targeting of King Khalid International airport in Riyadh.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that it “declares its full solidarity with the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”.

The statement added that Palestine supports “all measures taken by the Kingdom to safeguard its security, sovereignty, and the safety of its citizens and residents”.

Saudi authorities said on Saturday that the attack killed 12 people and injured 309 others.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says Trump’s claims that Tehran could attack San Diego or Los Angeles are “imaginary” and being used to “frighten” the American people.

Trump’s comments are “a textbook example of the politics of fear”, Baghaei wrote in a post on X.

The US president drew backlash for suggesting earlier this week that Iran may destroy the West Coast cities, but that it would be a “small price to pay” for a “tremendous victory” over Tehran.

Baghaei said the “real danger” is not from Iran, but “a ruling establishment that has imposed an illegal war on the world”.

Israeli forces have attacked four elderly farmers near Bethlehem, leaving one in a coma, Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

Israeli forces also detained the farmers for several hours while they were harvesting olives on their land near an illegal Israeli settlement south of Bethlehem in the Occupied West Bank, Palestinian sources told Wafa.

Each of the victims is reportedly in their 60s.

One man, 64, was assaulted seriously and has been transferred to a hospital, where he remains in a coma in an intensive care unit, Wafa reported.

Israeli forces and settlers regularly attack Palestinians harvesting olives, and have been known to also damage the crops and trees directly.

Qatar has condemned today’s attack by the Houthis on King Khalid airport in Riyadh, calling it a “serious violation” of Saudi sovereignty.

“The State of Qatar condemns in the strongest terms the attacks by the Houthi group on King Khalid International Airport,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a post on X.

The Houthi attacks are a “direct threat to the security of the region, the safety of civilians, civil facilities, and air navigation”, the ministry said.

Qatar also stated said that the security of Saudi Arabia is an “integral part” of Qatar’s security, as well as the “collective security system” of the wider Gulf Cooperation Council.

Egypt has expressed “strong condemnation” following today’s attack on Riyadh’s airport.

In a statement shared on X by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egypt expressed its “profound denunciation of these blatant attacks”, their “flagrant violation” of international law, and the “disregard” for the safety of citizens that they entail.

Egypt stands alongside Saudi Arabia in confronting these attacks, the statement said, and supports the steps it takes to “safeguard its security, sovereignty and the safety of its citizens.”

If it is the Ansar Allah Houthis who carried out the attack [on Riyadh], we can expect a statement to be released in the coming hours.

What the Ansar Allah Houthis have been hinting and signalling is that one of their main targets is the King Khalid International Airport, the Abha airport, the airports in Jazan, Najran, and any other airports in Saudi Arabia aside from those that are in Medina or near Mecca.

In Mecca, there are no commercial airports, but there are private airports. Those two airports are not going to be attacked, according to a statement from Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree, because they consider these to be holy sites.

What we can expect is the Ansar Allah Houthis are delivering on their promise to attack King Khalid International Airport and to cause disruption.

Their goal is to disrupt traffic into Saudi Arabia and give them a “taste of their own medicine”, as Ansar Allah Houthi officials have put it in their previous statements.

One year to the day after the US-brokered “ceasefire” was agreed, more Israeli attacks killed Palestinians in Gaza.

Aid remains restricted, healthcare and education have been devastated and hundreds of thousands continue to be displaced.

Watch our video below for more:

Qatar’s former prime minister says today’s attack on King Khalid airport shows that it is “more urgent than ever” to stand with Saudi Arabia in a “practical and decisive” manner.

“It has now become clear that Iran is our primary adversary”, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani said in a post on X, adding that the Gulf Cooperation Council today confronts “several hostile plots and conspiracies” that require “unity and profound foresight”.

He said it has become “more urgent and evident” that Qatar stands with Saudi Arabia against the “threat from within Yemen” that is being “plotted and directed from outside [Yemen]”.

The situation “necessitates setting aside all peripheral disputes” among Gulf Cooperation Council members and “demonstrating unity” instead, he said.

Al Thani served as the prime minister of Qatar between 2007 and 2013, and was also foreign minister during much of that period.