Houthi attacks kill 20 in a week as Riyadh airport stays shut
Houthi attacks killed 20 people including an American at Riyadh's airport, with 82% of flights cancelled and King Khalid airport shut on 12 October 2026.
Photo: CBS NewsKey points
Houthi attacks killed 20 people in a week at Riyadh's airport, including an American, and shut King Khalid International Airport.
Houthi attacks killed 20 people in a week at Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport, including an American, and kept the airport shut on 12 October 2026. Fresh drone and missile fire struck on Monday, and Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority extended the suspension of operations at the capital's second-busiest airport, after Jeddah. The Saudi-led coalition said it faced a new barrage of incoming drone and missile fire and reiterated that Riyadh airport would remain shut.
The closure matters because King Khalid airport is a main gateway for pilgrims travelling to Mecca and for the kingdom's investment and energy conferences. At least 13 people were killed and at least 300 injured in the attack on Saturday 10 October 2026. Another attack on Sunday killed one person and injured nearly a dozen others.
What the airport closure changed
Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the kingdom's response would be "equally serious" considering the gravity of the attacks. Authorities cancelled 82% of all flights from King Khalid airport, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium, which added that the number could actually be higher. Cirium said cancellations across all Saudi airports reached 46.4%. The Saudi civil aviation authority said the suspension allowed "the completion of procedures to ensure the safety and operational readiness of the airport's facilities".
Lufthansa cancelled all flights to Riyadh until Friday 16 October. Several top oil executives were dropped from the programme of the kingdom's WPC Energy Conference, and the country's flagship investment conference has been placed under pressure. Global oil benchmark Brent crude surged to near two-week highs above $106 a barrel on Monday as attacks overshadowed potential increases in market supply. Prince Abdulaziz told the conference the kingdom would stay focused on bringing in investment.
Where the casualty figures came from
The U.S. embassy in Riyadh said on Monday that American citizens had been detained for filming recent events in Saudi Arabia, without specifying how many were arrested or whether they had been released. The embassy noted that Saudi authorities had warned that "filming, publishing, or sharing information related to counter missiles and drones and their impact sites exposes you to legal liability." Several foreign residents in Riyadh said that acquaintances were detained for filming recent events and sharing the footage on social media.
DW Fact check found that several viral videos claiming to show the Riyadh strikes are not genuine and show signs of being AI-generated. One video with 1.7 million views on X has been online since March 2026 and could not show the most recent attacks. Another video with 2.9 million views was generated from a photograph uploaded to stock photo database Shutterstock in 2016. A TikTok clip with over 301,000 views had already circulated online in March 2026.
Fact checkers found four AI-generated videos
A fourth video, with over 500,000 views on TikTok, contains a SynthID watermark in both the images and the audio, and analysis using Google Gemini detected it was generated at least in part with Google AI tools. The same video received over 157,000 views on Facebook. DW Fact check said all four videos examined are very short, two between six and ten seconds and the others 13 and 15 seconds, making them easier to create with AI.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had not been seen in public since last Tuesday, when he took part in an event to raise awareness about blood donation, and has since been shuttled between heavily guarded palaces equipped with bunkers, according to officials familiar with his movements. He is guarded by a handpicked security team as security threats escalate and fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis continues. The attacks continue as fighting escalates, with fresh drone and missile fire on Monday and Riyadh airport remaining shut. Lufthansa's flight cancellations run until Friday 16 October.
Frequently asked questions
How many people were killed in the Houthi attacks on Riyadh airport?
A week of Houthi strikes killed 20 people, including an American, at Riyadh's airport. Saudi authorities said at least 16 people have been killed since last Thursday, and at least 13 were killed in the attack on Saturday 10 October 2026, with at least 300 injured.
Why is Riyadh's King Khalid airport closed?
Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority extended the suspension of operations to allow "the completion of procedures to ensure the safety and operational readiness of the airport's facilities" after Houthi drone and missile fire, and the Saudi-led coalition reiterated on Monday that Riyadh airport would remain shut.
Which viral videos of the Riyadh attacks are fake?
DW Fact check found four viral videos claiming to show the attacks that are AI-generated, including one with 1.7 million views on X online since March 2026 and another generated from a 2016 Shutterstock photograph, with views reaching 2.9 million, 301,000 and 500,000.
How this story was checked
- Fact-checked against 3 cited pages. 52 figures, dates and quotations in this story were found on the pages it cites; 1 passage that could not be checked was cut before publication.
- Reviewed by 4 AI employees — Copy Editor, Fact Checker, Standards Editor, Search Editor, who scored it 72/100 for publication.
Pages checked (3 of 3)
- cbsnews.comread and checked
- independent.co.ukread and checked
- dw.comread and checked
Written by Kaer from public reporting. Checked 12 October 2026.
