Three Saudi citizens were killed in two attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the kingdom's General Authority of Civil Aviation said on Friday.
The missile attacks took place on Thursday and hit a Saudia aircraft and airport facilities. A number of people have been injured, it added, without specifying the number. An airline captain named Hamoud Ali Alkalthami was among those killed.
Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed they hit the airport with two cruise missiles. The Iran-backed group also said it attacked an airport in the south-western city of Najran, a claim Saudi authorities have not confirmed, and launched ballistic missiles at an airbase in Khamis Mushait.
The latest casualties come after Saudi authorities said on Wednesday that three people were killed in earlier strikes this week on Riyadh airport and Abha airport, in the south-west.
Saudi Arabia has been attacked repeatedly after the Houthis made advances along Yemen's Red Sea coast, with the Yemeni government launching a counter-offensive supported by coalition strikes.
On Thursday, the kingdom said it would “punish” the Houthis after the deadly attacks on airports in Riyadh and the south, with debris from an intercepted ballistic missile causing damage to civilian areas in the capital.
“The brutal attacks by the terrorist Houthi militia on civilians and civilian objects in the kingdom … will not go unpunished,” said coalition spokesman Maj Gen Turki Al Malki. The coalition’s joint forces had destroyed dozens of Houthi military targets across Yemen, he added.
In another development, services from King Khalid International Airport were gradually returning to normal on Friday, after days of delays and cancellations. Flights were initially suspended on Wednesday morning after Houthi attacks, with disruption continuing into Thursday.
