Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement has escalated strikes on Saudi airports over the past week, killing at least 20 people — including a U.S. citizen — and wounding hundreds, forcing President Donald Trump to reconsider whether Washington should join Riyadh’s counteroffensive after previously rejecting a request from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Asked Sunday whether the United States would join Saudi strikes, Trump said: “We may. We’re gonna look at it … We’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.” The Houthi Saudi airport strikes now sit at the center of a wider dilemma involving Red Sea shipping, oil prices and U.S. munitions already strained by the war with Iran.
What happened at Saudi airports
According to CBS News, Houthi attacks on Saudi airports over the last week killed at least 20 people and wounded hundreds. The deadliest reported strike hit Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport; an American was among those killed in the Saturday attack there, though little public information has been released about the U.S. citizen.
The Guardian reported that a projectile hit Terminal 4 at King Khalid on Sunday — the day after the deadly missile attack that killed 13 and injured more than 300 — killing one more person and injuring 11, while air defenses intercepted a cruise missile nearby. Saudi authorities also confirmed an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam. Victims identified in open reporting included Saudi citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, Palestine, the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Sudan.
The Boston Report previously covered the Riyadh airport attack that killed 12 and wounded 309 and Saudi-led responses, including a coalition operation hitting dozens of targets in Yemen. Reuters reported that Saudi civilian-alert systems went silent days before the latest deadly strikes, CBS noted, raising questions inside the kingdom about air-defense gaps.
Houthi officials warned airlines and travelers to stay away from Saudi airports, saying facilities had “become a theatre of operations,” The Guardian reported. Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition, said the coalition would “respond firmly.”
Trump’s stated position — only his words
Two sources familiar with the matter told CBS that Trump rejected a request last month from Mohammed bin Salman to join Saudi strikes on the Houthis. He came close to ordering airstrikes a week later, those sources said, but again declined.
On Sunday, after the airport toll mounted, Trump told reporters the United States may join and would “look at it.” On Monday he said the Houthis were “misbehaving very badly.” In a Truth Social post Tuesday he repeated that phrase and wrote that he thought the group “learned their lesson a year ago when we bombed the HELL out of them.”
“Now they’ve emerged again, probably at the behest of Iran,” Trump wrote, adding that the rebels were “in a very nasty way, hitting Saudi Arabia, and purposefully trying to drive up Oil Prices, probably prior to the U.S. Elections — NOT NICE.” He added that he was “not running in the Elections” but would “be there after the Elections, and I will never forget!”
Those are the statements on the record. This report does not attribute unspoken motives beyond what Trump and named officials have said.
Bab el-Mandeb, oil prices and the shipping dilemma
The Houthis hold significant territory along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, enabling threats to vessels in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — the southern gateway to the Red Sea and a major chokepoint for energy and trade. About 10 percent of global maritime goods transit Bab el-Mandeb, The Guardian noted.
Thomas Juneau, an associate fellow at Chatham House, told CBS the situation creates “a difficult dilemma for President Trump.” “Direct U.S. involvement would likely lead to greater tension in the Red Sea, and therefore create more upward pressure on oil prices,” he said. “Should the U.S. refuse to become directly engaged, however, it will cause growing resentment and anger in Saudi Arabia, where feelings of abandonment … are already acute.”
Pump prices in the United States have already risen sharply since the February 2026 U.S.–Israel war with Iran disrupted Persian Gulf exports. The Trump administration has argued Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz and that more oil has been moving out of the Gulf in recent weeks; parallel war-risk insurance efforts for Hormuz shipping have been tracked in The Boston Report’s Chubb Hormuz insurance report. A sustained Houthi threat at Bab el-Mandeb would add a second chokepoint risk.
What analysts say U.S. options look like
Nadwa al-Dawsari, an associate fellow at the Middle East Institute, told CBS she does not think the killing of an American alone will trigger a military response, noting prior Houthi killings of U.S. civilians did not produce U.S. military retaliation. “Trump’s decision will likely depend on his broader assessment of the risks of further escalation,” she said.
Al-Dawsari said airstrikes on Houthi targets “would make the greatest difference,” and that the United States could also strengthen air and missile defense cooperation and help identify launch sites, weapons facilities and command-and-control nodes. She cautioned that “airstrikes alone will not eliminate the Houthi threat” and that the risk is being drawn into a prolonged campaign while already fighting Iran.
Aaron MacLean, a CBS News national security analyst, said Washington has a significant interest in keeping Bab el-Mandeb open and protecting Saudi energy exports, but warned U.S. action “will almost certainly be indecisive” and could amount to “mowing of the lawn” without a clear theory of how to end the fight — a hard sell for a president who campaigned against endless wars.
Mona Yacoubian, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said “the bar for President Trump to authorize strikes now is seemingly pretty high” and that the United States is “only likely to intercede now in the event of a Houthi attack that results in several U.S. casualties.”
Juneau noted that U.S. strikes between March and May 2025 caused “significant pain” to the Houthis — more than Saudi strikes alone — but “were not sufficient to fully deter” Red Sea attacks, “let alone to defeat them.”
Houthi warning and munitions constraints
Houthi political bureau member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti told AFP that if the United States gets “involved in the aggression against Yemen,” there would be “a swift and painful response targeting the U.S. and all its interests in the region,” CBS reported.
CBS also noted the Pentagon’s recent acknowledgment of U.S. munitions shortages caused by the war with Iran — a practical constraint on any new air campaign and on stockpiles needed to defend against retaliatory drone and missile attacks.
Saudi Arabia has sought additional help from partners. The United Kingdom said it would assist with defensive support, including refueling for aircraft intercepting Houthi missiles. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey issued a joint statement on implementing a mutual defense pact and speeding deployments, The Guardian reported. The Boston Report covered related regional air-role debates in its Pakistan–Saudi Houthi airstrikes report.
What happens next
Trump has not announced a decision. Saudi forces continue airstrikes and ground pressure against Houthi gains near the Red Sea coast, while the Houthis claim further attacks and warn travelers off Saudi airspace. Oil markets, midterm politics and munitions inventories will shape whether Sunday’s “we may” becomes a new U.S. combat role — or another refusal followed by intelligence support only.