President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States may join Saudi Arabia in striking Houthi rebels after a missile attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport killed 12 people — including an American citizen — and wounded more than 300.
“We may. We’re going to look at it,” Trump told reporters, adding: “We just found out about the recent attack. So we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”
The missile onslaught was the deadliest attack in a Gulf Arab state since the Iran war began earlier this year. Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said 12 people were killed and 309 injured, forcing a temporary suspension of airport operations and an urgent evacuation of the major transport hub.
Among the dead were an American citizen, four Saudi nationals, two Bangladeshis, and one person each from Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Sudan.
Trump called the attack “a terrible thing” and “not acceptable,” and said he would speak with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “What happened in Saudi Arabia is not acceptable,” he said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States “strongly condemns” the attacks, adding that they “demonstrate a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life.”
The strike came just days after another attack on the same airport, when a passenger plane was hit on Thursday, killing three Saudi citizens including a pilot.