Houthi Missile Strike on Riyadh Airport Kills at Least 12, Including an American. Trump Says U.S. 'May' Join Saudi Strikes

A missile fired by Yemen's Houthi militia struck the complex housing Terminals 3 and 4 at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday, Oct. 10. Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) reported 12 dead and 309 injured, with several people in critical condition. A later tally attributed to GACA put the dead at 13.

The dead include four Saudis, two Bangladeshis, and one each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Sudan and the Palestinian territories, according to the aviation authority's breakdown of the initial toll. The Wall Street Journal reported it was the deadliest attack on Saudi Arabia in more than a decade.

GACA suspended operations at the kingdom's main aviation hub. FlightAware showed about 400 cancellations into and out of the airport as of 11 p.m. local time. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh told Americans to avoid the airport and the surrounding area.

"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.

A week of airport strikes

Saturday was not the first hit. The Houthis have claimed responsibility for a string of strikes since Yemen's Saudi-backed government announced a major offensive against the group on Oct. 4.

On Tuesday, a strike on Abha International Airport killed two women, one Algerian and one Moroccan. On Wednesday, a strike on the Riyadh airport killed a Sudanese man, according to Saudi civil aviation authorities. On Thursday, three Saudis, including a pilot, died in another attack the Houthis said targeted King Khalid. TIME counted at least 19 dead in recent days.

The Saudi-led coalition said a separate projectile fell near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam on Saturday. Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Malki did not confirm a direct hit. Al-Malki said Friday that the attacks "will not go unpunished."

Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree has declared Saudi airspace an open military operations zone and warned international airlines to stay out. After Saturday's strike, the Houthis claimed responsibility and called Saudi airports "potential targets," according to the Washington Post. Saree also warned employees to stay away from Saudi oil facilities, which the group considers primary targets.

Saudi Arabia said Sunday it would "respond decisively."

Trump's answer

Asked outside the White House on Saturday whether he would join Saudi-led strikes, Trump said: "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." He announced nothing further and gave no details on what U.S. participation would look like.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio went further in tone. "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," he wrote. "They must stop now. We stand with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its people."

An American is dead. That changes the political arithmetic for a president who has so far kept Washington out of this fight.

The Guardian reported that the U.S. has held a unilateral ceasefire with the Houthis since 2025, quietly renewed after Saudi-Houthi fighting resumed this summer, and that Trump has twice turned down Saudi requests for help. The Guardian's analysis argues the plan Trump laid out Friday, which it describes as parking the Iran and Yemen conflicts until after the November midterms while leaving the Houthis to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, is now hard to sustain. That is the paper's assessment.

The diesel deal in the background

The attack came a day after Trump announced he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in a phone call that Putin would release millions of tons of diesel into global markets. Trump has been under pressure from Republicans to lower diesel prices before the midterms. He said at a campaign stop in Syracuse, New York, on Friday that Iran would either "give us everything or they don't exist any longer."

On Saturday he blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the fuel squeeze, saying he told Kyiv not to hit Russian refineries because "that's a world problem." Trump added that Zelenskyy "better damn well stop" and suggested Ukraine "get a new president."

The deal has drawn objections from inside Trump's own party. Former Vice President Mike Pence called the lifting of sanctions on Russian fuel "a betrayal of the legacy and leadership of the late Senator Lindsey Graham" and urged Trump to "rescind" it. Pence argued that "Putin doesn't want peace. Putin wants Ukraine."

The Guardian, citing calculations by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, said Russian diesel exports have fallen by about a third. It argued the extra volume Putin could put on the market is not enough to bring pump prices down.

What comes next

Two decisions are now pending. Riyadh has said it will respond to the Houthis, and Trump has said he will decide quickly whether American forces join. Neither has said what form a response would take.

GACA suspended operations at the airport and is assessing the damage, and the Houthis have threatened airlines that fly into Saudi airports.