Houthi Strikes on Riyadh Airport Leave Dozens of Civilians Hurt

A Saturday strike on Riyadh's international airport killed at least 13 people and injured 300. Many were Umrah pilgrims caught in the blast. Video of the attack drew widespread condemnation of the Houthis. On Wednesday, the group's military spokesperson said it had hit King Khalid International Airport again with a ballistic missile and vowed to keep targeting Saudi airports and oil facilities. The airport was to remain closed until October 17.

The Houthis said the attacks retaliated for Saudi actions in Yemen. A fire at an Aramco complex in Dhahran spread across several floors. On Tuesday, the group struck the headquarters of Saudi state oil giant Aramco in Dhahran, in the kingdom's east. In the week before the report, they hit Riyadh's international airport three days in a row.

A Truce Unravels

For four years, Saudi Arabia kept an uneasy truce with the Houthis. It followed a war Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a decade ago to oust the group. The conflict became a quagmire, drained Saudi resources and triggered widespread backlash over its devastating bombing campaign.

That truce is failing. "This is the collapse of Saudi Arabia's containment strategy," said Rob Geist Pinfold, an international security expert at King's College London. He compared the Saudi approach to Israel's treatment of Hamas in Gaza before 7 October 2023: leaders felt they had the group where they wanted it, weren't ready for a political solution, but believed they had disincentivized escalation.

The fighting resumed after Saudi Arabia bombed Sanaa airport in July to stop a plane carrying Houthi officials from landing. Iranian, Syrian and Hezbollah military advisers and weapons systems were on board, Middle East Eye reported. The Houthis answered by declaring a blockade against Saudi shipping and launching a lightning offensive down the Red Sea coast last month. Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies have struggled to counter it.

A More Capable Adversary

The Houthis now hit harder and more accurately. "It's quite striking, literally, that the Houthis can hit, at will, these incredibly important facilities in Saudi Arabia and the Saudis can't defend them," said Gregory Gause, an expert on the Gulf at the Middle East Institute. The kingdom spends 6.5 percent of its gross domestic product on military equipment, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, one of the world's highest ratios. It buys American weapons, including Patriot and Thaad air-defence systems.

A western defence official in Riyadh said Saudi Arabia intercepts the vast majority of incoming missiles and drones, probably in the low 90 percent range. But the Houthis have grown better at penetrating its defences. "It is a combination of innovation, rapid speed and the latest intelligence," the official said, speaking anonymously.

The group sharpened its targeting after 7 October 2023, when it began attacking Red Sea vessels in what it called solidarity with Palestinians under siege in Gaza. Three years on, a four-year ceasefire gave it time to establish itself in Yemen's rugged northwestern mountains. Middle East Eye reported it has also received more help from Iran and even Russia.

Fractured Allies on the Ground

Riyadh has little appetite for sending its own ground forces into Yemen. It relies on local allies, and they're struggling. The Yemeni government announced a full-scale offensive earlier this month to retake all territory the Houthis have held since 2014. A western official in the Gulf tracking it said he was "disappointed." "One force showed up to fight without food and water," he said. "Other units have just melted away, leaving the flanks exposed."

The most effective anti-Houthi fighters are factions aligned with the UAE. Saudi Arabia has clashed with its Gulf neighbour over its backing for their secessionist ambitions. On Tuesday, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the exiled head of Yemen's secessionist movement, appeared in a video with a map of the former southern Yemeni state behind him, calling for mobilisation against the Houthis. Ibrahim Jalal, an independent expert on Yemen and the Arab Gulf, said the appearance "was unnecessary and revealed the underlying Saudi-Emirati divergence."

Restraint and Its Critics

Diplomats and analysts said Saudi Arabia has generally responded with restraint, earning some sympathy abroad. "The Saudis have upped their game when it comes to more precise air raids," said Bader al-Saif of Kuwait University. Yet he also argued the kingdom may be too restrained. "Being dovish when you are being attacked is not quite wise," he said. "The Houthis need to be pushed to the negotiating table, and that means forcing changes on the ground."

Riyadh has sought outside backing. It activated the Mecca Pact, a joint defence agreement with Pakistan and Turkey, earlier this month. Islamabad has sent military aid, and Turkey is expected to follow. The US has declined to become publicly involved, though it has provided defensive support and intelligence, experts said. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted Democratic Senator Chris Murphy in Riyadh earlier this month. Murphy, once one of the sharpest critics of the Yemen war, didn't call for Saudi Arabia to stand down.

The economics cut against Riyadh. Saudi Arabia expects its economy to shrink by 3.6 percent this year and has already scaled back megaprojects under Vision 2030. It is reluctant to keep Riyadh airport closed long as it prepares to host a flagship investment conference at the end of the month. "A Houthi strike on Riyadh airport is so much more damaging to the Saudis than a Saudi strike on Sanaa airport is to the Houthis," Gause said.

He sees one realistic exit. "The only way the Houthis get restrained here is if the Iranians tell them to," Gause said. "That can only come from a US-Iran political deal."

Why This Matters: The latest escalation shows how quickly a frozen conflict can reignite when no political settlement stands behind a truce. Civilians are already paying: at least 13 dead and 300 injured in one airport strike, many of them pilgrims. Yemen's people lived through a decade of war and a bombing campaign that drew global backlash, and now face the prospect of a renewed offensive led by fractured forces, some arriving at the front without food and water. Analysts quoted here say the path out runs through diplomacy between Washington and Tehran, not more airstrikes. That's the analysts' assessment, not a certainty. But with a stalled US-Iran ceasefire feeding the Houthi campaign, civilians on every side have the most to lose from the absence of a political deal.