Second Strike Hits Riyadh Airport as Dammam Attack Is Confirmed

The airport attacks in Saudi Arabia escalated again on Sunday. The Saudi-led coalition says an unidentified projectile struck Terminal Four at Riyadh's King Khalid airport, starting a fire and injuring an unspecified number of people. Air defenses also intercepted a cruise missile near the airport and a drone over the Eastern Province. The Riyadh airport has been closed since Saturday, and Sunday's strike marked a second attack on the site in the same weekend.

Late on Sunday, the civil aviation authority confirmed a strike on the airport in Dammam, in the Eastern Province, saying damage assessments are underway. The Houthis' military spokesman claimed responsibility for Saturday's Riyadh attack in a televised speech, and also claimed the Dammam strike and attacks on two Aramco facilities. Neither the Saudi government nor Aramco has confirmed those claims, so the accounts of who carried out the later strikes remain unconfirmed by the authorities and the company named in them.

The human cost of the weekend's first attack also became clearer. The toll from Saturday now stands at thirteen dead and more than three hundred wounded, according to Reuters. That figure was reported alongside the new strikes, rather than as a toll for Sunday's incidents, for which the coalition gave no specific number of injuries beyond saying an unspecified number of people were hurt at Terminal Four in Riyadh.

In Washington, President Trump called the attack terrible on Sunday, said he will speak with the Saudi crown prince, and, when asked whether the United States might join Saudi strikes, repeated his Saturday answer: we may, we are going to look at it. In Gulf waters the same day, the United Arab Emirates' National Guard rescued twenty-two crew members from a burning oil tanker. The vessel was not identified, the cause of the fire was not given, and officials did not link the fire to the recent attacks on shipping.

From the October 12 episode of The World Briefing Room.