Explosions were heard in Riyadh on October 25 just as King Khalid International Airport began reopening two terminals for national carriers after a two week commercial shutdown triggered by Houthi attacks. Hours before the blasts, Yemen’s Houthi military spokesperson warned airlines, airport workers and travelers that the Riyadh hub remained an unsafe military target and vowed that strikes on the facility would continue, adding that the Saudi government “bears full responsibility for any operations conducted at the airport and the consequences that may result.”
The airport had allocated Terminal 1 to domestic routes and Terminal 2 to international flights for the October 25 restart, advising passengers with confirmed bookings to verify their flight status with airlines before heading to the terminal. Commercial flights at the capital’s main gateway had been suspended since an October 10 attack that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, part of 20 Houthi drone and missile strikes on the Riyadh facility between October 1 and October 11 that the Saudi-led coalition said killed 17 people and injured 333 in total.