Houthi strike on Riyadh's airport kills a Pakistani resident a day after a deadlier attack halted flights

A Houthi strike hit King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Sunday, killing a Pakistani resident and wounding 11 other people, Pakistan's Dawn reported. It came a day after a deadlier attack that forced authorities to suspend operations at the airport. Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority said that attack killed 12 people and wounded more than 300, among them citizens of Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt. Earlier this month, the Houthis also struck the airport in Abha, in southwestern Saudi Arabia.

The New York Times described the conflict as asymmetrical. The Houthis, whom the paper calls Iran-backed, can use low-cost missiles and drones against assets that Saudi Arabia has spent heavily to build, and the kingdom has few good responses. The Saudi-led coalition said last week it had destroyed 82 Houthi military targets in Yemen. Lufthansa Group has suspended its flights to Riyadh through October 16.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the deadlier strike, saying attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international law and that "these attacks must cease immediately." Saudi officials have called such strikes war crimes and said Riyadh would respond.

South Asia is directly exposed. BBC News Hindi profiled an Indian citizen killed in the attacks and published video of an attack on people who had travelled for Umrah, the pilgrimage to Mecca. The outlet noted that about 2.6 million Indians work in Saudi Arabia and contribute significantly to India's economy. It warned that if such attacks continue unchecked, Indian interests will be directly affected. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attacks and reaffirmed Pakistan's commitments under the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement. Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan signed that agreement on August 7, and it treats an attack on one member as an attack on all three.

The Houthis, who call their movement Ansarallah, have long described strikes on Saudi airports as retaliation for the coalition's campaign and blockade of Yemen, according to Iranian outlets that carry their statements. Saudi authorities describe the attacks as strikes on civilian infrastructure.