Yemen’s Houthi movement has told airlines, aviation staff and travellers to stay away from Saudi airports and airspace altogether, a day after a missile attack on Riyadh’s international airport killed at least 12 people and injured more than 300.
The warning matters directly to Sri Lanka. Saudi Arabia hosts one of the largest Sri Lankan migrant workforces abroad, and SriLankan Airlines has already suspended its Riyadh operations until 18 October following the attack.
What the Houthis said
Military spokesman Yahya Saree said on X that “the Yemeni armed forces renew their warning to all aviation and navigation companies, experts, staff, workers, and travellers against using Saudi airports and airspace,” the Daily Mirror reported, carrying a DW report.
“The airports and airspace are exposed to targeting and constitute a theatre of operations for our forces,” he said. He added that the airports of Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities in Islam, would not be targeted — the only exemption named.
Saree said the warning should be taken “seriously” and that Saudi Arabia “bore responsibility” for failing to intercept the missiles that struck Riyadh on Saturday.
Hiru News carried the same statement from a Reuters report, in identical terms: the warning covers airlines, airport workers and travellers, and the kingdom “bore responsibility for failed interceptions”.
The attack behind it
Operations at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport — which has no military facilities — were suspended after Saturday’s strike. It is the deadliest attack on any Gulf Arab state since the start of the Iran war.
NewsFirst reported a broad wave of international condemnation. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the attack killed an American and called for an end to “these reprehensible attacks”. President Donald Trump, asked whether the US would join the war against the Houthis, said: “We may. We’re gonna look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We’ll move very quickly.”
UN special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg called the strikes on civilian airports “a grave escalation” that “pose a serious threat to regional security, perpetuate cycles of violence and complicate even more peace efforts for Yemen”. Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Oman and Pakistan all condemned the attack; Pakistan, which recently activated a mutual defence pact with Riyadh, called it a “heinous act of terrorism”.
The Saudi-led coalition described the attack as a “fully-fledged war crime” and vowed a tough response.
Context
The strike on Riyadh came amid a surge in Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia this week targeting airports, military sites and oil infrastructure, following a major coalition offensive against the group. The Houthis, aligned with Tehran, have fought Yemen’s internationally recognised government for more than a decade; a 2022 truce froze but did not end the conflict.
Not reported
None of the three filings says whether Saudi Arabia has closed any airspace, whether other airlines have suspended flights, or how long Riyadh airport will stay shut. None reports any Sri Lankan among the casualties of Sunday’s warning period, or whether the Sri Lankan mission in Riyadh has issued fresh advice to nationals since the attack. None says whether SriLankan Airlines will extend its suspension beyond 18 October in light of a warning that now covers every Saudi airport rather than Riyadh alone.
The figure for the wounded differs slightly across filings — “more than 300” in the Daily Mirror’s DW copy and NewsFirst’s headline, against the 309 given by Saudi authorities and reported here on 10 October.
