Houthi Attacks on Saudi Airports: What the Riyadh Strikes Mean for 2.7 Million Indians and India's Oil

Saudi aviation and press authorities have reported deaths from Houthi strikes on Riyadh's airports on three separate days since 8 October. One of the dead was an Indian national. India's government told Parliament in February 2025 that 2,747,551 Indians live in Saudi Arabia, which makes this a story about Indian households as much as a Gulf war story.

This piece covers what has been reported as of 16 October, where the accounts disagree, and what India is actually exposed to. The war is moving daily, so some numbers below will date quickly.

What has been reported

• 8 October: A strike on Riyadh airport. Saudi civil aviation authority GACA said three Saudi nationals were killed, including a Saudia captain.
• 10 October: A strike on King Khalid airport. The Saudi Press Agency reported 13 dead and more than 300 injured.
• 11 October: Another hit in Riyadh, with one death according to GACA. The Houthis also claimed an attack on Dammam airport.
• 13 October: A strike on the administrative building at Aramco's headquarters in Dhahran.
• 14 and 15 October: Another ballistic missile aimed at Riyadh was intercepted. The EU-GCC summit was postponed.

Outlets disagree on some dates and counts. One explainer gives a 7 October date and mismatched weekdays, so this article uses only the figures attributed to GACA and the Saudi Press Agency.

Who says what

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree claimed the Riyadh strike and said operations toward Saudi depths would continue in the coming days. The Houthis describe the attacks as a reply to Saudi strikes. CBS and AFP reported that a Saudi-led coalition hit oil sites in Yemen on 13 October.

Donald Trump wrote that the Houthis are behaving very badly, and suggested Iran may be behind it. Asked whether the US would join the fighting, he said he could not say. The question of Iranian direction is open. Al Jazeera's explainer does not establish a direct Iranian role, and analysts generally describe the Houthis as Iran-backed but fairly independent in their decisions.

The Aramco hit has two accounts. Saudi Arabia's energy ministry described a limited fire. Daily Jagran, citing anonymous Reuters sources, reported extensive damage. Neither version has been independently confirmed here, and the gap matters because it bears on how much Saudi export capacity is at risk.

India's exposure: people

On 14 October the Ministry of External Affairs said one Indian had died on 11 October and 11 were injured. Eight were still in hospital and four were in intensive care. Earlier embassy figures put the intensive-care count at three, so the MEA number is the current one. The ministry's statement was direct: these attacks should stop immediately and are totally unacceptable. The victim is not named here because a single outlet supplied the name and he was a private individual.

Flights are the second pressure point. Air India and Air India Express have cancelled services to Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah until 20 October. IndiGo has suspended flights, including to Madinah, until 24 October. Akasa has cancelled Riyadh until 24 October and Jeddah until 21 October. For families with relatives in the kingdom, and for workers whose contracts depend on travel, the suspensions matter before any oil price does.

Indian ambassador Vipul has told nationals to stay calm and not to panic. The embassy also warned against sharing footage of the attacks, since doing so can break Saudi law.

India's exposure: oil

Brent settled at $106.06 on 14 October. Analysts named several drivers: the Houthi-Saudi clashes, tanker attacks near Hormuz, and hopes for Russian diesel exports. No source in this research ties the price move to the Saudi strikes alone, so this article does not either.

Kpler data cited by Business Standard put India's September crude imports from Saudi Arabia at about 566,000 barrels a day, out of roughly 5.3 million in total. That is close to a tenth of India's crude. In the same reporting, Russian crude imports had fallen to a five-month low as refiners diversified. My reading, and it is an inference, is that Saudi supply is part of the fallback for any Indian refiner moving away from Russian barrels, so attacks on Saudi infrastructure matter to that plan.

What is not established is whether Saudi supply to India is disrupted today. On 18 September, Business Standard, citing the Economic Times, reported that Aramco had halted shipments to Indian refiners until further notice after drone attacks on the East-West pipeline. Kpler's September figures, however, show Saudi volumes rising. The two reports sit uneasily together, and no current confirmation was found either way.

Global Chanakya Assessment

The evidence supports three conclusions. First, civilian aviation infrastructure in the Saudi capital is being struck repeatedly, with deaths attributed by Saudi authorities themselves. Second, India's immediate exposure is human and logistical: a large diaspora, a death and injuries, and flight cancellations running to 20 to 24 October. Third, India's oil exposure runs mainly through the Saudi share of its crude basket, and the data on whether that share is under strain is mixed.

The evidence does not support the claim that Iran directs the strikes, that Aramco has suffered extensive damage, or that Brent's level is caused by this conflict. Each of those has an identifiable source making it, and each is contested or unconfirmed.

Intelligence Forecast

This forecast is short because the situation is changing daily. If Houthi strikes continue as Saree said they would, Indian airlines will probably extend the current suspensions past 20 and 24 October. If the Saudi-led coalition keeps hitting oil sites in Yemen, further Houthi strikes on Saudi energy facilities are plausible, though that is a judgment and not a reported fact. A pause in attacks would be visible first in airline schedules and embassy advisories.

Indicators to Monitor

• Whether Air India, IndiGo and Akasa extend cancellations beyond 20, 24 and 21 October
• Updated MEA figures on Indian casualties and any repatriation or evacuation advisory
• Saudi energy ministry or Aramco statements on Dhahran damage and export loadings
• Kpler or other tanker-tracking data on Saudi crude cargoes bound for India in October
• New Houthi claims naming Saudi airports or energy sites, and further coalition strikes in Yemen
• A rescheduled date for the postponed EU-GCC summit
• Brent settlement prices and the explanations analysts give for each move