Iran-backed Houthi terrorists killed at least 12 people, including an American, and wounded more than 300 others in a missile attack on Saudi Arabia’s busiest airport Saturday, as President Donald Trump weighs joining Saudi-led military strikes against the group.
The attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh struck a complex housing two passenger terminals, sending travelers fleeing, overwhelming nearby hospitals, and forcing authorities to suspend operations at the kingdom’s principal aviation hub.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation confirmed 12 fatalities and 309 injuries, including several people in critical condition. The dead included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis, and one American, Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian, Sudanese, and Palestinian.
The assault was Saudi Arabia’s deadliest in more than a decade, according to the Wall Street Journal, and came amid an escalating Houthi missile campaign against the kingdom’s airports and other civilian infrastructure.
The attack also raised the prospect of direct American military intervention in the renewed conflict.
Asked by reporters outside the White House whether he had decided to join Saudi-led strikes against the Houthis, Trump replied:
“We may. We’re going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”
The president did not announce a decision, and his remarks preceded Saudi authorities’ public confirmation that an American was among the dead.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio subsequently condemned the attack, explicitly acknowledging the American fatality and declaring Washington’s support for Saudi Arabia.
“The United States strongly condemns the recent attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by the terrorist Houthis, including today’s strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh that took numerous innocent lives, including an American citizen,” Rubio wrote Saturday. “These reprehensible attacks demonstrate a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life. They must stop now. We stand with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its people and extend our condolences to the victims and their families.”
Saturday’s attack was the third to strike Riyadh’s main international airport this week, as the Houthis intensified their missile campaign against Saudi Arabia following the launch of a major Saudi-backed counteroffensive in Yemen.
The missile struck the airport complex housing Terminals 3 and 4. The Wall Street Journal reported direct hits on both terminals, while eyewitness accounts described scenes of panic as explosions tore through the airport.
“I was on gate 403. I saw [gate] 401 hit, I saw injured [people] in front of my eyes. Everyone was running,” one witness told Agence France-Presse.
Ambulances and helicopters rushed the wounded to hospitals, where medical personnel struggled with the influx of casualties. Several victims were reported to be in critical condition.
The attack occurred without an advance public warning from Saudi Arabia’s threat-warning system, according to Reuters, which cited people briefed on the incident, including Western officials.
The Houthis subsequently claimed responsibility for the assault, with the head of the Iran-backed terrorist group’s media office boasting that it had “shut down Riyadh international airport.”
The Houthis had previously declared Saudi airspace a military operations zone and threatened commercial aircraft operating without their approval. Following Saturday’s attack, the group’s military spokesman reposted a warning that only preapproved humanitarian flights would be permitted to land in Riyadh, adding: “a reminder.”
Saudi authorities diverted or canceled flights and temporarily suspended airport operations. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh urged Americans to avoid the area, warning that it “strongly recommends all US citizens avoid this airport and surrounding areas.”
The Saudi-led coalition separately denounced the airport massacre as a “full-blown war crime” and pledged a forceful military response.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, the coalition’s spokesman, described the assault as a “terrorist act that will be met with a firm response.”
“The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition will respond to this terrorist attack firmly and in accordance with international humanitarian law and its customary rules,” he said.
Saturday’s massacre came less than a week after Yemen’s internationally recognized government announced Operation Yemen Dawn, a major counteroffensive to reclaim strategic territory seized during a rapid Houthi offensive along the country’s Red Sea coastline.
The campaign was announced Sunday, with the Saudi-led coalition launching its own military operation the following day in Yemen’s Hodeidah province. The offensive followed weeks of Houthi territorial gains around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital maritime chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis had threatened to obstruct Saudi-linked shipping through Bab el-Mandeb, threatening a critical alternative export route as the wider war with Iran disrupted maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi-backed forces have claimed gains around Bab el-Mandeb and nearby Perim Island, although control of the strategically important territory remains disputed.
The counteroffensive has been accompanied by Saudi-led airstrikes against Houthi missile facilities and military positions, while the terrorist group has intensified its attacks on Saudi airports and other infrastructure.
Earlier in the week, Houthi missile attacks on airports in Riyadh and Abha killed three civilians and wounded dozens more, as Saudi forces continued striking missile-storage facilities, command centers, and launch sites inside Yemen.
Additional strikes on Riyadh’s airport later Thursday killed three Saudi citizens, including an airline pilot, and damaged a Saudi commercial aircraft, according to Saudi authorities.
Al-Maliki warned before Saturday’s attack that the Houthi strikes “will not go unpunished.”
Saturday’s attack killed more people in a single assault than the earlier airport strikes combined, marking the deadliest escalation yet in the Houthis’ renewed campaign against Saudi Arabia.
Washington has already provided Saudi Arabia with intelligence, targeting assistance, and operational planning support against the Houthis, while also facilitating Israeli intelligence coordination through U.S. Central Command.
Direct American strikes, however, would represent a significant expansion of Washington’s military role in the conflict.
With Saudi Arabia vowing retaliation, Rubio condemning the killing of an American citizen, and Trump openly considering joining the kingdom’s military campaign, Saturday’s attack has brought the possibility of direct U.S. intervention in Yemen into sharper focus.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
