Yemeni Religious Scholars Association condemns attack on Riyadh airport
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — The Yemeni Religious Scholars Association condemned the attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, calling it a crime forbidden in Islam, the state news agency Saba said.
Saba reported the statement on Sunday, a day after the attack.
The account of the statement rests on Saba, which said it received the text from the association. Yemen Herald found no independent publication of it.
The association said targeting a civilian facility crowded with travelers was unanimously forbidden in Islam. It described the attack as an act of armed aggression.
Anyone who carried out, financed or justified such an act shared responsibility for it, the statement said.
The association offered condolences to Saudi Arabia’s leadership, government and people. It extended them to the families of those killed and to the countries they came from, and wished the wounded a recovery.
It said the group it called the Iranian-backed Houthi militia does not represent Yemen or its people. Yemenis were the militia’s main victims, it said.
The Houthis reject that description. They cast their strikes on Saudi territory as retaliation in a war they say the kingdom started.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said 12 people were killed and at least 309 wounded in Saturday’s attack. Some of the wounded were in critical condition, it said.
Four of those killed were Saudi citizens and two were from Bangladesh, according to the authority. It said the others were from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt.
Operations at the airport were suspended while the authority assessed the damage. The airport is the main gateway to the Saudi capital.
Saudi officials have not said publicly what weapon was used. An analyst’s initial assessment pointed to a ballistic missile.
The Houthis had claimed a ballistic missile strike on the same airport on Thursday. The head of the group’s media office wrote on X that it had shut the airport down.
The Saudi-led coalition called the attack a “full-fledged war crime.” Its spokesman, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, said the response would be decisive.
Al-Malki said a separate projectile fell near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam.
Three people were killed in attacks on Saudi airports earlier in the week, Saudi authorities said at the time.
Qatar condemned Saturday’s attack as a threat to regional security. Egypt, Jordan and Oman expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia.
U.S. President Donald Trump called the attack terrible. He said he was weighing whether the United States should join the campaign against the Houthis.
The embassies of the United States, Britain, Ireland and Canada told their citizens to avoid the airport.
The U.S. mission in Saudi Arabia later restricted its staff from using three airports in the kingdom.
The association described the attack as a betrayal of Saudi support for Yemenis. It cited facilities the kingdom has extended to Yemeni residents there.
Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry announced on October 5 that it would regularize the status of Yemeni nationals living in the kingdom without valid residency. It said it was acting on the directives of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and at the request of Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council.
The ministry described the measure as humanitarian support for the Yemeni people.
The association called on what it termed the legitimate leadership to press on with Operation Yemen Dawn, the government’s offensive against the Houthis.
It urged governments and international bodies to support the Yemeni government and to designate the Houthis a terrorist entity.
Yemen’s cabinet approved a draft law designating the group a terrorist organization this month. Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba has called for firm international action against the Houthis.
The statement asked Islamic scholars and preachers abroad to set out what it called the religious prohibition on such attacks. It urged Yemenis to close ranks against the group.
Yemen has asked the Security Council to condemn a missile and drone attack on Aden airport.
The Saudi-led coalition said it destroyed 136 Houthi military targets in an overnight operation this month. Residents reported airstrikes on southern and western Sanaa.
Saba operates from Aden under the internationally recognized government. A rival service of the same name operates from Sanaa under the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition in Yemen since 2015, when the Houthis took the capital and the government fled. The two sides have fought since over territory, ports and the country’s oil and gas.
Fighting intensified this autumn. The UN special envoy, Hans Grundberg, told the Security Council this month that Yemen had slid back into full-scale war.
The United Nations says more than 22 million people in Yemen need humanitarian aid. It says 18.3 million are acutely food insecure and 5.2 million are displaced inside the country.
The United Nations says 2.2 million children under five in Yemen are acutely malnourished, including more than 516,000 with severe acute malnutrition.
Aid agencies have appealed for $2.16 billion this year to reach 12 million people.
The Houthi leadership has not commented publicly on the association’s statement.
The association did not say when it had met to agree the statement. Saba did not say whether it had been sent to Saudi authorities.
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