Attack on Riyadh airport kills 12, injures 309 – Trump weighs joining fight
Twelve people, including a U.S. citizen, were killed in the third attack in a week on Riyadh's King Khalid airport, Saudi authorities said. Operations were suspended.
Archive image · Photo: Kharbaan Ghaltaan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
At least 12 people were killed and 309 injured in an attack on King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday, Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said. The dead included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis and one person each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan. Some of the injured are in critical condition. The head of the Houthi media office said on X that the group had "shut down Riyadh international airport."
The airport temporarily suspended operations, and FlightAware counted 324 cancellations on Saturday. The U.S., Canadian, German and Spanish embassies told citizens to stay away. Saudi-led coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki called the attack a "full-fledged war crime" and vowed a decisive response. The coalition said a projectile also fell near Dammam's King Fahd International Airport and that a drone launched toward the Eastern Province was destroyed. Three people, including a pilot, were killed in an attack on the same airport on Thursday.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. "may" join Saudi strikes on the Houthis and would decide quickly, adding: "We're going to look at it." He said he plans to call Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. "strongly condemns" the attacks, which he said showed "a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life." The Iran-backed Houthis have declared Saudi airspace a zone of military operations after Yemen's government launched an offensive against them on Monday.