Houthis Strike Saudi Capital, Marking Dangerous New Phase In Iran Proxy War

Saudi Arabia said Saturday that its air defenses destroyed a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels at Riyadh, the first strike on the Saudi fighting with the Iran-backed group reignited this summer.

The Saudi-led coalition confirmed the interception hours after the dawn launch. Residents reported hearing an explosion, and journalists saw firefighters extinguish a blaze on the Aramco-branded fuel tank at a depot near King Khalid International Airport. No casualties were reported.

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said the Houthis also tried to hit civilian infrastructure in Yanbu — the Red Sea terminus of a key Saudi oil pipeline — as well as Taif, Baysh and Farasan, all of which were thwarted. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed missile, cruise-missile and drone strikes on “sensitive sites” in Riyadh and on Aramco facilities in Yanbu, calling them retaliation for a Saudi attempt to hit Sanaa.

The attack is the latest turn in a monthslong escalation. Houthi forces launched a ground offensive on September 3 and within roughly a week had overrun most of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, including the port city of Mokha and islands controlling the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical artery for global shipping. The United Nations says the fighting has displaced around 125,000 people.

Strikes on the kingdom itself have grown more frequent. A Sept. 8 barrage wounded 73 people and set Saudi oil facilities on fire. Days later, Riyadh accused the group of flying a drone toward Mecca, calling the city’s security a “red line”; the Houthis denied it. On Thursday, Saudi officials said debris from an intercepted drone killed a Yemeni resident of the kingdom — the first fatality reported on Saudi soil since the latest fighting began.

Saudi Arabia is running short on interceptor missiles, according to regional officials cited by the Associated Press, and has asked France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt for air defense assistance. The United States, its principal arms supplier, has been depleted by six months of its own war with Iran and has so far limited its response to intelligence-sharing rather than direct strikes on the Houthis.

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