Canada’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia said Sunday that the embassy in Riyadh remains open for Canadians who need help, a day after a Houthi missile strike on King Khalid International Airport killed 12 people and injured hundreds, according to The Canadian Press.
The Saudi-led coalition said another projectile hit a passenger terminal at the airport on Sunday, The Canadian Press reported. The coalition has said the Houthi attacks on civilian infrastructure will not go unanswered, according to CBC News and France 24 headlines reviewing the weekend’s events.
Ambassador Jean-Philippe Linteau said in a video message that the embassy “remains open for Canadians who are in need of consular assistance.” He advised anyone who finds military debris in Riyadh to move away from it, contact local authorities and avoid posting about it on social media.
Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the violence late Saturday, calling the Houthi attacks on civilian infrastructure “abhorrent” and unjustified. He offered condolences to the families of those killed, The Canadian Press reported.
No Canadian casualties have been reported. The reports reviewed do not say how many Canadians are in Saudi Arabia or how many were at the airport.
The Canadian Press reported that Canada’s travel advisory tells citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to Saudi Arabia and all travel to the airport. The Government of Canada’s Saudi Arabia travel page, as it appeared when Canada News Media checked it, carried a lower level of warning. It told travellers to exercise a high degree of caution, warned that missiles and drones launched from Yemen can target airports and urban areas, and did not mention Riyadh’s airport by name. The page showed no clear update date, so travellers should check it directly for the latest wording.
The weekend strikes are a sharp escalation from earlier attacks on Saudi airports. Canada News Media reported on Oct. 8 that attacks on the airports in Abha and Riyadh on Oct. 6 and 7 killed three people and injured 36, according to the kingdom’s General Authority of Civil Aviation. The latest toll is four times higher for a single site, based on figures reported by The Canadian Press, CNN and The Washington Post.
The Washington Post framed the attacks as part of a wider regional conflict involving Iran. Canada News Media has not independently verified the Houthi claims of responsibility for individual strikes, and the details of the damage to the terminal have not been confirmed.
For Canadians, the practical risk is travel. Riyadh is a major connecting point for flights between Canada and South Asia and the Gulf, which means diaspora communities with family overseas are among the people most likely to be affected by disruptions. The reports reviewed do not say whether flights have been cancelled or rerouted, and travellers should confirm their itineraries with their airline.
Canadians who are in Saudi Arabia can contact the embassy in Riyadh at 966-11-202-3288 or the Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa, according to the federal travel page. The embassy is in the city’s Diplomatic Quarter.
The coalition has not said what form its response will take, and the Houthis have continued to claim new attacks. This story is developing.
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Via The Canadian Press (Yahoo Finance Canada). Death toll also reported by CNN and The Washington Post.
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