President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Houthi militants who control vast swaths of Yemen were “behaving very badly” as consequences of the US-Iran war spill into the broader Middle East.

The Iran-backed Houthis have been battling the Saudi-backed Yemeni government in a civil war since 2014, but the conflict has intensified since the US began its eight-month war on Iran. The group has recently escalated attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the vital Bab al-Mandab Strait. The Houthis launched attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport in recent days, killing 13 people, wounding more than 300, and closing the skies above the Saudi capital.

Trump told reporters that he “might” ask Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to intervene and support Saudi interests.

“President Erdogan, I think, would do as I ask,” Trump said.

(Reporting by Jacob Bogage; editing by Michelle Nichols )