Riyadh Struck
A second projectile hits Riyadh's King Khalid airport, a day after a Houthi missile strike kills 12 people there.
Riyadh's King Khalid airport took a direct hit Sunday, a day after a Houthi missile attack there killed 12 people, Saudi officials said.
The projectile struck Terminal 4 and started a fire, the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said. Air defenses intercepted a cruise missile near the airport. It was the third attack on the facility in the past week, the Guardian reported.
Saturday's attack injured 309 people, NBC News reported, citing Saudi civil aviation authorities. Some of the wounded remain in critical condition. Four Saudi citizens died. So did two Bangladeshi nationals, a Palestinian, an American, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian and a Sudanese, the Associated Press reported.
It was the deadliest strike to hit a Gulf Arab country since the Iran war began in March, the Associated Press reported. The attack sharply escalated a Houthi campaign against Saudi Arabia. Riyadh backs Yemen's government against the Iran-allied rebels.
Riyadh blamed the Houthis for Saturday's attack. The group did not immediately claim Sunday's strike. It did renew a warning telling airlines, staff and travelers to avoid Saudi airports, the Guardian reported. "Saudi airports have become a theatre of operations for our forces," the Houthis said in a statement on X, according to the Guardian.
Trump said he was weighing whether to join Saudi military operations against the Houthis. "We may. We're gonna look at it," he told reporters, according to NBC News. "We just found out about the recent attack. So we'll make a decision. We move very quickly."
About 200 U.S. military advisers are already stationed in Saudi Arabia. They provide intelligence and targeting support, the Guardian reported. Washington has not joined the fighting directly.
Qatar called the strike "a grave violation of Saudi Arabia's sovereignty," NBC News reported. The United Nations Secretary-General also blamed the Houthis for the attack, NBC News reported.
Saudi authorities extended the airport's closure. They moved schools online through Thursday, the Guardian reported. Trump said he planned to call Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Fawaz Gerges put it bluntly. The London School of Economics professor of international relations told NBC News, "The Houthis are determined to fight to the end."