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Black smoke and flames billow from a fire at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on the 9th (local time). / AP, Yonhap

Yemen's pro-Iranian Houthi rebels attacked King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital of Riyadh again on the 10th (local time), leaving at least 12 people dead and over 300 injured, Saudi authorities said.

As clashes between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis intensify, U.S. President Donald Trump hinted at the potential for American intervention in the conflict.

According to The New York Times (NYT) and Reuters, Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) announced early on the 11th that the fatalities included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis, and one national each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan, and Egypt, with the latest casualty count confirming 309 individuals wounded.

Senior Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti claimed responsibility on the 10th for the Riyadh strike, asserting that the operation was carried out in retaliation for Saudi airstrikes targeting civilian infrastructure across Yemen.

"The Houthis carried out this attack to signal to the world that airports, ports, wedding halls, funeral homes, hospitals, and markets in Yemen are civilian facilities that must neither be targeted nor damaged, and that rules protecting such facilities in Yemen must apply equally to similar infrastructure everywhere else," he said.

The Houthis initiated large-scale strikes against Saudi Arabia on the 5th, claiming attacks on King Khalid International Airport as well as an Aramco refinery in Rabigh along the western coast, Abha International Airport in the southwest, and military installations including King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait.

Furthermore, missile strikes launched against the two airports on the 6th and 7th killed three people and injured 36. An additional strike targeting King Khalid International Airport on the 8th killed three people.

The Houthis have threatened that Saudi airspace in its entirety—with the exception of the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina—could become targets of military operations.

In a statement on the 11th, the Saudi-led coalition declared that the Houthi attack specifically targeted passenger terminals at the airport, vowing to respond resolutely.

Inside Yemen, Saudi fighter jets have been conducting bombing campaigns against Houthi forces. The Houthis claimed that hundreds of airstrikes have struck across Yemen in recent weeks.

Anis al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run Ministry of Health, stated that 91 people have been killed in airstrikes across Yemen since the 3rd of last month, with the majority of victims being women and children.

President Trump hinted that the U.S. military might join Saudi actions against the Houthis.

Asked by reporters outside the White House in Washington, D.C. on the 10th whether such plans were being considered following the Houthi strike, Trump responded: "Could be. We're going to take a look at it. I was just briefed on the recent attack, so we'll be making a decision soon. We move very fast."

                                                                                                             Kim Hyun-min