Singapore condemns attacks on Saudi aviation infrastructure after Riyadh airport deaths

Singapore condemned attacks on civilian aviation infrastructure in Saudi Arabia on Friday, Oct. 9, after Saudi authorities reported that two attacks at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport the previous day killed three Saudi nationals and injured several people. The Houthis claimed an attack on the airport, but the Saudi civil aviation authority did not identify those responsible in the account reported by The Associated Press.

Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the attacks, which it said caused civilian deaths and injuries, ‘unacceptable and cannot be justified,’ according to CNA. Its statement adds a diplomatic response to a week of reported attacks on airports amid renewed fighting in Yemen. The ministry did not announce a specific diplomatic or policy step in the account published by CNA.

What Saudi authorities said about the Riyadh airport attacks

Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said both of Thursday’s attacks struck King Khalid International Airport, according to CNA and AP. AP reported the authority’s account that the first targeted airport facilities and the second struck a Saudia Airlines aircraft. The authority said the injuries ranged from minor to serious, AP reported. The available account does not establish precisely how the aircraft was damaged.

Saudia Group said the aircraft was on the ground and had no passengers aboard when it was damaged, AP reported. The airline group named Saudia pilot Capt. Hamoud Ali Alkalthami among those killed. It said airport operations had returned to normal by 6 p.m. Thursday. Those details describe the immediate toll and operational response; they do not establish who carried out either attack.

What the Houthis claimed and what remains unconfirmed

The Houthis announced Thursday that they had attacked Riyadh’s airport, CNA reported. AP said the group claimed to have targeted the airport with a ballistic missile. Those are the group’s claims: the Saudi civil aviation authority’s statement, as reported by AP, did not assign responsibility for the two attacks it described. The reporting also does not establish the precise weapon or sequence of damage to the Saudia aircraft.

CNA reported that the Houthis say they are targeting Saudi Arabia because it supports government forces in Yemen. Saudi Arabia says it is backing an offensive by Yemen’s United Nations-recognised government to regain territory from the Houthis. The competing accounts explain the context for the airport claim, while leaving responsibility for Thursday’s specific attacks to be established.

Earlier airport attacks and Yemen’s renewed fighting

The Thursday toll is separate from deaths and injuries reported earlier in the week. In an Oct. 7 report, Reuters said Saudi authorities had reported one person killed and eight wounded at King Khalid airport, and two killed and 28 wounded at Abha airport. The authority said one of those attacks happened Tuesday and the other Wednesday but did not specify which occurred on which day. Those earlier figures should not be treated as the casualty count for Thursday’s two Riyadh attacks.

Reuters also reported that the Saudi-led coalition vowed retaliation over the earlier airport attacks, saying they ‘will not go unpunished.’ The coalition said it had attacked more than 80 Houthi military sites across four Yemeni governorates late on Oct. 7. These were the coalition’s reported actions and statements concerning that earlier sequence, rather than a confirmed response to the Thursday attacks addressed by Singapore.

The airport incidents come amid intensified fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen. Reuters reported that the latest battles had focused on territory around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the town of Mocha. The International Organization for Migration said more than 200,000 people had been displaced since the latest round of fighting began, Reuters reported. That wider toll gives context to the renewed conflict without changing what is confirmed about the Riyadh airport attacks.

Singapore had previously condemned attacks on Saudi Arabia, including attacks on energy infrastructure and commercial vessels in the Red Sea, in July, CNA reported. Friday’s statement specifically addressed civilian aviation infrastructure and the reported deaths and injuries. For the latest Riyadh attacks, the open questions remain who carried out each strike and exactly how the aircraft was damaged; neither question is resolved by the Houthi claim alone.