Saudi authorities count 309 injured; the U.S. already helps the Saudis pick Houthi targets (AP).
A missile hit domestic Terminals 3 and 4 at Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on Saturday, Oct. 10, killing 12, including an American and four Saudis, Saudi aviation authorities say. Hours later Trump said the U.S. "may" join Saudi strikes on the Houthis in Yemen: "We move very quickly."
The real number. AFP and the WSJ call it the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia since an Islamic State mosque bombing killed 21 in May 2015; the NYT and AP, the deadliest on any Gulf Arab state since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began Feb. 28. With six killed earlier in the week (TIME), airport strikes have killed at least 18 since Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Why now. Yemen's Saudi-backed government opened an offensive on Sunday, Oct. 4, to retake Red Sea coast the Houthis seized in September. That coast overlooks the main shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran attacks ships (AP).
The stakes. Joining would put U.S. bombs behind a Saudi-backed ground war and end the May 2025 Oman-brokered deal under which the Houthis stopped attacking U.S. ships and the U.S. stopped bombing them (NBC).
Congress. Ro Khanna (Rep-D California) and Thomas Massie (Rep-R Kentucky) filed a War Powers resolution on Friday, Oct. 9, to pull U.S. forces from hostilities against the Houthis that, it says, Congress never authorized. It gets a fast-track vote but skips the president, so a 1983 Supreme Court ruling leaves its force in doubt (Congressional Research Service). Trump's 2025 Houthi strikes rested on his own commander-in-chief authority.
Still open. Whether Trump strikes. He ordered Houthi strikes for Sunday, Sept. 20, and canceled them about three hours before launch (NBC). He now says he will speak to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Catch up
- Oct. 3 — The U.S. refused Saudi requests to bomb the Houthis and sent targeting data instead.
- Oct. 6–8 — Airport strikes in Abha and Riyadh killed six, including three Saudis in a Houthi-claimed Oct. 8 attack.
11 earlier issues
- Houthi missiles and drones hit 4 Saudi cities, wounding 73 and halting Aramco's 400,000-barrel-a-day Jazan refinery
- Houthis capture Yemen's Mokha from Saudi-backed forces 46 miles from Bab el-Mandeb
- UpdateHouthi forces captured Mokha and Perim island in the 28-kilometer Bab el-Mandeb strait.
- UpdateA day after the Bab el-Mandeb capture, maritime monitors have recorded no new transit halts
- UpdateSaudi Arabia shuts Hormuz-bypass pipeline, oil rises more than $3 with 4% of supply at risk
- UpdateHouthis seize two more Red Sea islands as Saudi pipeline faces 3-to-5-week outage
- UpdateSaudi Arabia suspends loadings at its last open oil terminal; September cargoes cancelled
- Attacks on Saudi export pipeline push WTI crude to $107.02 a barrel, a 30-day high
- UpdateHouthi missiles hit Riyadh, burning a fuel depot near King Khalid airport
- UpdateSaudi Arabia says it intercepted a Houthi missile aimed at Riyadh
- UpdateTrump declined a prepared U.S. air campaign against the Houthis, giving Saudi Arabia intelligence and targeting data instead
Who says who fired it
- The Saudi-led coalition blames the Houthis (AP); the Saudi aviation authority's statement blamed no one.
- No formal Houthi claim came in AP's or CBS's reports, but Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti told RT and the NYT the group did it, in retaliation for Saudi strikes.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed "the terrorist Houthis."