‘Why Did They Kill Him?’ Mourning Victims of Houthi Attack on a Saudi Airport
New York Times · LC · trust 37/100
The strike was the Iran-backed militia’s most lethal against Saudi Arabia, by far, during their long conflict.
Listen · 7:50 min Share full article 7 Mourners carrying the body of Mahmoud Barqawi, 33, at his funeral in Amman, Jordan, on Monday. He was killed in a Houthi missile attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday. Credit... Raad Adayleh/Associated Press By Vivian Nereim
Buthaina Owaida, a Syrian woman who had moved to Saudi Arabia, was on the phone with her grandson.
Mahmoud Barqawi was working in a restaurant at the airport, hoping to save enough money to build a home back in Jordan.
All three were among the people killed on Saturday afternoon when a cruise missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi militia smashed into Terminal 3 of the international airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital.
The attack by the Houthis — an Iranian-backed militia that has been battling Saudi Arabia on and off for more than a decade — set the terminal ablaze and brought chunks of the roof crashing down on travelers, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 300, the Saudi authorities said.
Saturday’s assault was the deadliest in a Gulf Arab country since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began in February. It was also the Houthis’ most lethal attack, by far, during their long conflict with Saudi Arabia , which continues to escalate. On Tuesday night, explosions rocked the Saudi and Yemeni capitals as the two sides exchanged intense strikes.
Days after the calamity at the airport, Saudis and foreign residents of the kingdom are still in shock, struggling to make sense of what happened.
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