Saudi under siege: Houthis attack airport

On Saturday, a missile strike on Riyadh's international airport killed more than a dozen people, making it the deadliest attack inside Saudi Arabia in over a decade. Another attack followed on Sunday. The strikes came from Yemen's Houthi rebels, an Iranian-backed militia that has been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since 2015. But this escalation is not happening in isolation. It comes as the wider war between America, Israel, and Iran has destabilized a fragile ceasefire in Yemen, and as Saudi Arabia is preparing to host high-profile international events meant to showcase its economic transformation.

The Houthis and the unraveling ceasefire

The Houthis seized control of large parts of Yemen in 2014. The following year, Saudi Arabia led a coalition that invaded the country with the goal of pushing the rebels back. That effort largely failed. After seven years of grinding war, a ceasefire in 2022 froze the front lines, and they remained mostly static until this year. But when America and Israel went to war with Iran in February, the ceasefire in Yemen began to look unsustainable. By summer, both sides were preparing for another round of fighting. In September, the Houthis launched an offensive and seized a large chunk of territory along Yemen's southwestern coast. The Saudis began a counteroffensive earlier this month, but progre