The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has vowed to retaliate after a suspected Houthi missile attack on Riyadh airport killed 12 people and wounded more than 300, as Donald Trump said the US could join its military campaign. Saudi Arabia blamed the Iran-allied Houthi rebel movement for the strike on the airport on Saturday, which damaged passenger terminals. It was the deadliest attack on a Gulf country since the war with Iran started in March and an apparent escalation in the Houthis’ war with Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government that it sponsors.
Videos circulated on social media showing travellers walking through debris-strewn ground in the airport as sirens blared. Four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, a Palestinian, a US citizen, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian and a Sudanese were killed in the missile strike. On Sunday, Saudi authorities extended the airport’s closure and said schools would be moved online until Thursday.
On Saturday night, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, said the coalition “will respond firmly” to the attack, offering little other details. The Houthis doubled down on their threats on Sunday, warning airlines, passengers and staff to stay away from Saudi airports. The group said “the worst is yet to come” if Saudi military action in Yemen continued.
Trump said he was evaluating whether the US would join the military campaign against the Houthis, saying on Saturday: “We’re gonna look at it.” He said he would speak to the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on Saturday night. US involvement against the Houthis would be a further widening of the regional war that grew out of the US-Iran conflict, which so far has included fighting in Lebanon and Iraq. The US has already been assisting with intelligence cooperation and targeting, with about 200 US military advisers stationed in Saudi Arabia to assist with the campaign.
Until now, the US has not directly taken part in fighting against the Houthis. Direct US involvement could lead the group to resume its targeting of ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab strait, through which about 10% of global maritime goods transit. Saudi Arabia is already carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
The group blamed the country for two airstrikes on Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, on Sunday. The Houthi government’s health ministry said coalition airstrikes over the last six weeks had killed 91 Yemenis and wounded 168, 60% of whom it said were women and children. Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen launched a campaign to push the Houthis back from the areas the group conquered over the last month.
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