US Mission in Saudi Arabia restricts staff use of three airports after Riyadh attacks
Yemen Herald News 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The US Mission in Saudi Arabia told its staff on Sunday to get special authorization before using the airports in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.
The instruction came in a security alert dated October 11, published on the mission’s website and shared by the US Embassy in Riyadh on the social platform X.
The alert said the mission was aware of attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on October 10.
It strongly recommended that US citizens avoid that airport and the areas around it.
The account of the alert rests on the US Mission’s own published notice. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of its contents beyond outlets relaying the same document.
The mission urged US citizens to use extreme caution at all large Saudi airports.
It said travellers should expect possible flight cancellations, airspace closures and disruption, and should check departure times with their airline and the airport.
US government employees in Saudi Arabia may not travel within 20 miles of the Yemen border, the alert said, citing safety risks.
They also need special authorization to travel to Jizan, Asir and Najran provinces and to the cities of Qatif, Yanbu and Taif.
The restriction on the three airports widened measures the mission already applied to parts of the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said the Houthi missile attack on the Riyadh airport on Saturday killed 12 people and wounded more than 300. The Houthis claimed that attack.
Those killed included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis and one person each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt, according to Saudi figures.
India’s embassy said an Indian citizen died on Sunday of injuries from Saturday’s strike, taking that toll to 13.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, condemned the attack and said Washington stood with Saudi Arabia.
Rubio offered condolences to the victims and their families and said an American was among those killed.
Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, called the strike a “full-fledged war crime” and said the coalition would respond.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi official, said the attack was retaliation for Saudi strikes on civilian sites in Yemen. He said airports, seaports, hospitals and markets in Yemen were civilian facilities.
A further strike on the same airport on Sunday killed one person and injured 11, the civil aviation authority said. It identified the person killed as a Pakistani resident.
The authority said attacks on the airport on Thursday killed three people, among them a Saudia pilot.
An attack on the Riyadh airport on Wednesday killed a Sudanese man, according to Arab News.
Two women were killed the previous day when Abha International Airport in Asir province was hit.
The Riyadh airport has been struck four times in five days and has been closed since Saturday.
Qatar, Jordan, Oman, Kuwait and Japan condemned Saturday’s attack.
US President Donald Trump said he was weighing whether to join the fighting against the Houthis, and that he planned to speak to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Iran’s foreign minister urged Saudi Arabia to pursue diplomacy.
The attacks followed a Houthi offensive along the Red Sea coast of Yemen’s Taiz governorate in September, in which the group took the port city of al-Mokha and Dhubab district.
Government forces backed by Saudi Arabia began a counteroffensive in early October and have retaken some ground near Bab al-Mandab.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, announced those operations.
Yemen’s cabinet approved a draft law on Sunday designating the Houthi group a terrorist organization and criminalizing its activities and financing.
Bab al-Mandab is one of the few alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz for Gulf energy shipments.
Jizan, Asir and Najran lie along or near Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen.
Abha International Airport, in Asir, has been among the sites hit in the current round of attacks.
Airport operations in Riyadh were suspended after Saturday’s strike, and flights for the WPC Energy Congress and other events were diverted.
Al Jazeera reported that no attack in Saudi Arabia had killed more people since the US-Israel war on Iran began in late February.
The Houthis struck Aden International Airport in Yemen with ballistic missiles and drones on October 7, Yemen’s transport ministry said. The group claimed that attack.
A Yemenia Airways flight from Cairo was diverted to Jeddah after the Aden attack, Yemen’s government said.
Government troops and allied southern groups launched their offensive near Bab al-Mandab on October 5.
By Monday afternoon the pro-government force led by the Giants Brigades said it had cut the main road linking al-Mokha to Bab al-Mandab.
Reuters reported that it could not independently verify the date of footage showing an advance near Dhubab.
Saudi Arabia reopened the Riyadh airport after the Thursday attack, before closing it again at the weekend.
Trump said the United States would “make a decision” about whether to intervene.
Houthi forces fired missiles at Riyadh in 2018 and attacked the city with drones and missiles in 2020.
The civil aviation authority said damage assessments and safety inspections at the Riyadh airport were under way.
The US Mission asked citizens who need help to contact it through the channels listed in its alert.
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