[UPDATE] Strike on Riyadh airport kills 12, including an American; Trump says the U.S. "may" join Saudi strikes on the Houthis
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.
PREVIOUSLY
- 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.
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."
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Pentagon raises its official U.S. death toll in the Iran war to 21 after adding two noncombat deaths it had left out
Late Friday, Oct. 9, the Pentagon's public casualty database went from 19 to 21 U.S. deaths in the Iran war, with 865 wounded. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had called the Post's Sept. 18 report of at least 22 deaths "DISGUSTING and FAKE"; with a third death logged under the anti-ISIS mission, the Pentagon's own Middle East count is now 22.