At least 12 people were killed and around 300 others wounded on Saturday in the third attack this week on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis claimed a strike that marks a major escalation in their campaign against Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s General Civil Aviation Authority put the toll at 12 dead and 309 injured, with all the wounded receiving care at several hospitals. Those killed included four Saudi nationals, two Bangladeshis, and one citizen each from the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan.

The attack came without warning — Saudi Arabia’s threat-warning system did not send an alert, according to Reuters. Two earlier attacks on the same airport this week killed four people and badly damaged a Saudi passenger plane parked on the tarmac. All flights to Riyadh were diverted or cancelled, and the airport suspended operations.

Trump: US may join Saudi strikes

Asked outside the White House whether Washington would join Saudi strikes on the Houthis, US President Donald Trump said: “We may. We’re going to look at it.” He added that the US would decide quickly, and called the attack “a terrible thing”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington strongly condemns the attacks. The Saudi-led coalition called the strike a “terrorist act” and said it would respond firmly. Its spokesperson, Major General Turki Al-Maliki, said the coalition destroyed a drone over Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Region, intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile at Al-Kharj, southeast of Riyadh, and that a projectile fell near Dammam’s international airport.

Why the fighting has flared again

Saudi Arabia joined the Yemen war in 2015, leading an Arab coalition that tried to push the Houthis out of Sanaa. A 2022 deal froze the conflict, but the ceasefire broke down over the summer as the Houthis advanced to take the Red Sea chokepoint of Bab el-Mandeb.

This week, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government launched a ground offensive to retake that territory, making slow gains while the Houthis put Taiz, the country’s third-largest city, under siege. The airport strikes expose gaps in Saudi air defences at a tense moment — Riyadh is due to host major energy and investment conferences soon, though organisers said the events will go ahead as planned.