Saudi alert system silent before deadly Riyadh airport attacks, Reuters reports

Right · 1Saudi Arabia stopped issuing public warnings of imminent military attacks days before a series of strikes on Riyadh airport that, according to Reuters, killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 300. 1 Centre · 1Hindustan Times, citing Reuters, describes Houthi attacks on the airport including one strike that killed at least 13 people, among them an Indian, and injured over 300. 2 Mixed · 2The government has not said why there were no alerts before the four Riyadh attacks of the past week, and the civil defence authority and the government media office did not respond to Reuters' questions. 1 2

Right · 1Saudi Arabia began sending threat alerts to mobile phones and social media accounts through a national early warning system in May. The last alert before the attacks was on Sept 29, for Najran province, according to the civil defence X account; the authority issued its first alerts since then on Oct 12, warning of potential threats in Riyadh and southern cities. 1 Right · 1Reuters could not establish whether the Oct 12 alerts were a response to the airport attacks. 1 Right · 1Four Western and Arab officials and political analysts told Reuters the absence of warnings raised questions about the kingdom's vulnerability and ability to protect residents and visitors, and reflected efforts to maintain a sense of normalcy during its war with Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis. 1

Right · 1Sultan Alamer of the Middle East Policy Council said the government wants "to have it both ways: to launch a military operation and at the same time try to give confidence to the population and external stakeholders". Former US ambassador Michael Ratney said the lack of alerts "creates the very nervousness they are trying to avoid". 1 Right · 1Two officials said an allied Western government asked Saudi authorities before the attacks why alerts had stopped, and were told they were too disruptive and many citizens complained of being woken at night. Saudi officials did not respond to requests for comment on that assertion. 1 Mixed · 2Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the government, said that with or without warnings the kingdom would struggle to defend all its assets given its size and a shortage of Patriots and interceptors. 1 2

Right · 1Western embassies have been sending their own internal missile and drone alerts to staff, but according to people familiar with the matter even the embassies received no warning before the Oct 10 airport strike, the deadliest of the attacks; Reuters could not determine why. 1 Right · 1Other Gulf states have handled warnings differently since the US-Iran war began in February: Qatar has sent phone alerts before nearly every attack, while Bahrain and Kuwait have repeatedly sounded sirens. 1 Mixed · 2Saudi Arabia hosted the World Petroleum Council Energy Congress in Riyadh on Monday, where Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said "this country is safe" but that the gathering "does not mean the risk is gone"; major oil bosses dropped out. US President Donald Trump said the Houthis were "misbehaving very badly". 1 2