A Houthi ballistic missile struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday morning, October 10, killing 12 people and wounding at least 309. The dead included four Saudi nationals, two Bangladeshis, and one person each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt. Airport operations were suspended. A separate projectile fell near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam. The Houthi media office announced the airport shut. They had. Donald Trump called the attack 'terrible' and said he was weighing whether the United States should join the war against the Houthis.

Weighing it. The war against the Houthis that the United States has been conducting, indirectly, for the entire duration of the eight-month US-Israel war on Iran. The Houthis are Iran-backed. The United States has been fighting Iran since February 28. The Strait of Hormuz is blockaded by US naval forces. The Houthis have been attacking Saudi airports, Red Sea shipping and US military assets throughout this period. Saturday's attack on King Khalid was, according to the Saudi-led coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki, the twentieth attack on the airport since October 1. Seventeen people had been killed and 333 wounded from October 7 to 11 alone, before Saturday's missile hit. 'Weighing it' is one way to describe eight months of watching.

The Houthis declared Saudi airspace a military operations zone earlier this month, exempting only aircraft over Mecca and Medina from being treated as targets. The coalition called Saturday's attack a full-fledged war crime. Qatar called it a direct threat to regional security. Egypt, Jordan and Oman expressed solidarity with Riyadh. Embassies advised nationals from the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada to avoid the airport. The UN envoy for Yemen described the country as having returned to 'full-scale war.' A Saudi-backed Yemeni government offensive against the Houthis launched the previous Monday had triggered the surge in Houthi strikes on Saudi territory.

President Macron announced last month that France would send troops and air defence systems to protect Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. The deployment began this week. France has made a decision. The United States, whose naval blockade of Iranian ports is the central fact of this war, whose aircraft carriers are in the Gulf, whose weapons are in the hands of every party to this conflict, is weighing it. Twelve people went to Riyadh airport on a Saturday morning. Four were Saudi. One was American. The Houthis said the airport would remain a target. Trump said he was weighing whether to join the war against them. The airport was already closed.