Trump weighs in on joining Saudi strikes after Houthi terrorist attack

DAILYMAIL.COM • 1h ago

By EMMA RICHTER, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER 14:39 11 Oct 2026, updated 14:43 11 Oct 2026

President Donald Trump said he is considering joining Saudi Arabia’s strikes after Houthi terrorists killed one American and at least 11 others in the Riyadh airport bombing.

The King Khalid International Airport was the target of a massive attack on Saturday that killed at least a dozen people and injured more than 300 others, Saudi Arabian authorities said.

Saudi Arabia’s government and its allies have blamed the Houthis for the latest strike, but the Iran-backed terrorist organization did not immediately confess to being behind the attack. Instead, the group warned people to steer clear of Saudi airports.

When asked by reporters outside the White House if the US would join the attack, Trump said: ‘We may. We’re going to look at it.

‘We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.’

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since condemned the incident and shared that one unidentified American died.

‘The United States strongly condemns the recent attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by the terrorists Houthis, including today’s strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh that took numerous innocent lives, including an American citizen,’ he wrote on X on Saturday evening.

Rubio continued: ‘These reprehensible attacks demonstrate a blatant disregard for innocent civilian life. They must stop now. We stand with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its people and extend our condolences to the victims and their families.’

It marks the deadliest attack in a Gulf Arab nation since the US-Israel war with Iran broke out in February.

If Trump does decide to get involved, it would likely escalate the ongoing war between the US and Iran.

Since the bombing, countries, including the US, Britain, Germany, Australia and Canada, have warned citizens to avoid Saudi Arabia’s largest airport.

Local aviation authorities said all airport operations have been suspended while officials assess the extent of injuries and damage.

Saudi Arabia is running low on missile interceptors and has gone on to ask other countries, including France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt, to deploy air defense support to the region, officials told the Associated Press in September.

One regional official told the outlet that the US has seen its own stockpile of missiles shrink during the war with Iran.

So far, the US has assisted Saudi Arabia by sharing intelligence, planning for the offensive against the Houthis, and target identification, officials said, according to NPR.

The airport attack damaged three planes, an official who spoke on condition of anonymity said, the outlet reported.

One of the planes was damaged on the ground, and no passengers were on board, Saudia Group said.

In addition to the US citizen, four people from Saudi Arabia, two from Bangladesh, one from Jordan, one Palestinian, one Syrian, one person from Sudan, and one Egyptian citizen died in the attack, the BBC reported.

One passenger witnessed a strike in the airport’s domestic terminal, they said.

‘I was on gate 403. I saw 401 hit, I saw injured in front of my eyes. Everyone was running.’

The attack prompted health officials to activate a rare mass call-up of doctors to deal with the ‘serious emergency situation’, a medical source said.

Two doctors said several pilgrims headed to Mecca had been among the wounded.

The Houthis claimed a series of strikes targeting the airport on Thursday that killed three people and damaged a passenger jet. However, they did not immediately take responsibility for any new attacks on Saturday.

Saturday’s attack was the deadliest in the kingdom since May 2015, when an Islamic State suicide bomber killed 21 worshippers in a Shia mosque in the eastern Qatif governorate.

The civil war in Yemen flared back to life in July after a four-year, UN-brokered truce collapsed, months into a wider Middle East war that has rocked the region and roiled energy supplies and markets.

Saudi Arabia leads an international coalition that has supported Yemen’s government militarily since 2015 and is now being drawn deeper into its impoverished neighbor’s conflict.

A March 2022 ceasefire between the Houthis and Saudis unraveled months ago, sparking an intense advance by the terrorist group as the Saudi-led coalition tried to retake its territory.

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