President Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday that the United States "may" join Saudi Arabia’s military strikes against the Iran-backed Houthi militia group based in Yemen. The statement follows a devastating wave of airport attacks over recent days that killed at least six people and resulted in a near-complete shutdown of public air traffic into and out of the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The President’s comments came shortly after a fresh attack on Saturday, in which a missile struck the complex housing Terminals 3 and 4 of King Khalid International Airport (KKIA), the second-busiest aviation hub in Saudi Arabia. Dozens of people were injured in the blast, sending shockwaves through the region’s transportation network. While the Houthis had proudly claimed responsibility for earlier attacks on the airport earlier in the week, they did not immediately issue a claim for this latest Saturday strike.

The weekend escalation is the latest in a rapid sequence of violent events over the past week. The offensive began just days after Yemen’s Saudi-backed government announced a major military offensive against the Houthis on Oct. 4, designed to push back the militia’s territorial gains.

Information regarding individual strikes earlier in the week has been scarce, but the human toll has been severe. Two strikes took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. An attack on the more southerly Abha International Airport killed two women—one Algerian and one Moroccan—while a separate strike on KKIA left one Sudanese man dead, the country’s civil aviation authorities confirmed in a statement on Wednesday.

The violence continued unabated when the Houthis stated they had once again targeted KKIA on Thursday using ballistic weaponry. That specific strike resulted in the deaths of three Saudi citizens, including a commercial pilot.

According to regional reports, the victims of the past week’s aggressive strikes have been primarily Saudi nationals, but the casualties reflect a grim international footprint. Individuals from Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sudan have also been killed or injured in the crossfire, turning the aviation facilities into scenes of international tragedy.

Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen, issued a stern warning in a statement on Friday, vowing that the brutal attacks "will not go unpunished."

Targeting civilian aviation infrastructure is a signature tactical strategy utilized by the Houthi militia. A strikingly similar move against the Abha airport in 2019 was globally denounced as an apparent war crime by Human Rights Watch, highlighting the long-standing international concern over the safety of civilian transit hubs in the conflict zone.

Undeterred by international condemnation, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, a prominent Houthi military spokesperson, reiterated an earlier warning on Thursday. He advised international airlines and passengers to entirely avoid the airspace over Saudi Arabia. Riyadh had already declared the airspace an open military operations zone on Monday. Saree also warned all employees to avoid Saudi oil facilities to safeguard their lives, designating the energy infrastructure as primary military targets in the ongoing conflict.

The consequences for regional mobility were immediate and severe. The General Authority of Civil Aviation announced that Riyadh had suspended all operations at its main international airport on Saturday while emergency teams assessed the extensive structural damage. Flight tracking data from FlightAware showed a staggering 400 flight cancellations into and out of KKIA as of 11 p.m. local time, stranding thousands of travelers and paralyzing the kingdom’s primary air gateway.

In response to the deteriorating security landscape, the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh issued a formal security alert, strongly advising American citizens to avoid KKIA and its surrounding metropolitan areas as of Saturday.

"U.S. citizens should be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions. We recommend checking your flight departure status directly with the airline and with the airport," the embassy’s official website stated, emphasizing the high level of uncertainty facing foreigners in the capital.

Why Has the Saudi-Houthi Conflict Escalated?

The latest series of airport attacks did not occur in a vacuum; rather, they followed months of rapidly escalating threats targeting both commercial air travel and critical maritime shipping lanes in the region.

In July, the Houthis accused the Saudi military of launching an airstrike on Sanaa International Airport. Yemen’s Saudi-backed government subsequently claimed responsibility for that action, stating that its forces had sought to prevent an unauthorized Iranian plane from landing at the facility.

In retaliation for the Sanaa airport incident, the Houthis declared that they would impose a strict naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, setting the stage for broader maritime confrontations.

Last month, the militia group captured both the strategic port city of Mokha and Perim Island in a concerted bid to control the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait. With commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz already severely disrupted by the ongoing U.S. war with Iran, any concurrent threat to traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait threatens to drastically deepen the unfolding global oil crisis.

In the weeks following these captures, Saudi-backed forces have claimed to retake both seized coastal areas. However, these claims have not been independently verified by neutral observers, and military control over the vital chokepoints remains heavily disputed on the ground.

Faced with these mounting pressures, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called President Trump in September to explicitly urge him to take direct action against the Houthis. The urgent diplomatic request came as the militia group continued to gain tactical ground over vital naval and air chokepoints in the Red Sea.

Although Washington and Riyadh are long-standing strategic allies, the U.S. administration explained as recently as last month that it did not harbor immediate plans to entangle itself directly in the localized conflict. TIME has reached out to the White House for further comment as the security situation continues to evolve on the ground.

President Trump’s renewed consideration of launching military strikes in Yemen arrives at a politically delicate time, as the broader war with Iran remains deeply unpopular with the American public. A recent AP-NORC poll published on Oct. 1 revealed that 69% of Americans felt the broader conflict had simply not been worth fighting.

On Thursday, President Trump publicly pledged that the U.S. would not initiate military attacks against Iran prior to the Nov. 3 midterms—a specific political promise that notably left open the possibility of targeted strikes against Houthi forces operating inside Yemen.