- Saudi Arabia accused Houthi rebels of targeting Mecca, vowing retaliation and warning holy sites are a “red line.” - The Houthis seized all of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, declaring a maritime blockade on the kingdom. - The revived civil war has displaced 82 000 people since September and rattled global oil and shipping markets. The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Houthis accused the rebels on Wednesday of targeting Islam’s holy city Mecca, sparking outrage across the Muslim world and deepening the conflict roiling the region. Fresh fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed Yemeni government has dragged in Riyadh, with the Houthis declaring a maritime blockade on the kingdom and targeting its ships in the Red Sea. Last week’s lightning offensive saw the group seize control of the entirety of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital artery for Saudi oil exports as the wider Middle East war chokes off the Strait of Hormuz strategic shipping route. The Houthis swiftly rejected as a “lie” Riyadh’s report that it shot down a drone from the rebels heading towards the Saudi city of Mecca, which attracts millions of pilgrims each year. “The claims about targeting Mecca are a worn-out lie that has been used before and no longer fools anyone,” Hazem al-Assad from the Houthis’ politburo wrote on X. The Saudi coalition vowed retaliation, warning that the security of holy sites was a “red line”. “The security of the Two Holy Mosques and the pilgrims is a red line, and the Joint Forces Command of the Coalition will not hesitate to take the necessary and deterrent measures against the Terrorist Houthi Militia,” the coalition said in a statement shared by spokesman Turki al-Maliki on X. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation – a bloc of 57 Muslim countries – condemned the “heinous” attack. READ | Yemen’s Houthis reach strategic island at mouth of vital shipping lane Saudi Arabia had issued brief alerts on Tuesday over possible attacks in Mecca and across swathes of the kingdom’s south, which borders Yemen. The alerts, including the first one issued in Mecca since the Middle East war erupted in February, came a day after a wave of ballistic missile and drone attacks launched from Yemen wounded 13 people in the kingdom’s south. Fighting flared in July when the Houthis, who have for years controlled swathes of northern Yemen, launched a large-scale offensive against Yemeni government forces. The conflict in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country has forced 82 000 people to flee their homes since the start of September, according to the United Nations. Yemen’s permanent representative at the UN, Abdullah al-Saadi, said Yemenis were fighting to restore “national institutions across every inch of their land”, and called on the international community to take action against the Houthis. ‘Hostile and extremist’ Yemen’s plea came as Saudi Arabia and Egypt called for free navigation in the Red Sea following the Houthi’s offensive in the vital waterway. De facto Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on Tuesday for “ensuring the freedom and security of maritime navigation” through the Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab – which links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, the Egyptian presidency said. The revival of Yemen’s civil war, dormant since 2022, has left Riyadh rushing to respond. US media reported last week that the Saudi crown prince made a personal request to President Donald Trump for US intervention, but was turned down. The Houthis have insisted that there is no threat to navigation in the Bab al-Mandab except for Saudi vessels. Any attacks in the waterway are likely to make it less attractive to shippers. ALSO READ | Attacks on Saudi Arabia drive oil near $100 a barrel Disruption in the strait could cause Egypt to feel the pinch too, as the Red Sea serves as the gateway to the Suez Canal, upon which Cairo relies for crucial foreign revenue. Canal revenues are currently around half of what they were before the Houthis first started attacking Red Sea shipping in 2023, a campaign they said was in solidarity with Palestinians during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. On Tuesday, Qatar warned of dire consequences if Bab al-Mandab was closed, saying it would be “catastrophic for the entire world”. The Houthis have also targeted oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading crude exporter, helping push global prices above the $100-a-barrel threshold. READ MORE | Saudi Arabia cornered by Iran’s proxy attacks, blockade The Saudi-led coalition said it would deal with the attacks “firmly to protect the sovereignty of the Kingdom”, and would take “all necessary operational measures to deter this... hostile and extremist approach”. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said Tuesday that Saudi Arabia launched 52 airstrikes on Yemen over the past 24 hours, accusing it of targeting civilian sites, including schools and bridges. But Riyadh’s strikes have failed to reverse the group’s gains. A US military task force is working to enhance intelligence-sharing and planning assistance for Saudi forces as they face attacks, a US official told AFP on Tuesday.
- Saudi Arabia accused Houthi rebels of targeting Mecca, vowing retaliation and warning holy sites are a “red line.” - The Houthis seized all of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, declaring a maritime blockade on the kingdom. - The revived civil war has displaced 82 000 people since Septembe…
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Yemen's Houthis claimed on Wednesday to have shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet with a locally manufactured missile, while Saudi Arabia announced new deterrent measures following alerts of potential drone attacks near Mecca. The Houthi military spokesman stated that the incident occurred during "hostile operations" and rejected Saudi allegations that the group had targeted Mecca, attributing the claims to fabrication.
US weapon support to Israel! $2.8 billion bomb sales plan (machine-translated headline from a Turkish-language source)
Cairo: At various times over the last decade, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Britain and Israel have carried out punishing air raids on Yemen's Houthi rebels -- only to see them grow even stronger. Now, as the Iran-backed Houthis advance on a key maritime chokepoint and strike Saudi oil facilities, rattling world markets, there is little that can be done to stop them that hasn't been tried before.
That's because the Houthis operate in a large and mountainous territory where they can disperse fighters and military infrastructure while threatening major oil infrastructure and key trade routes. Iran and its allies in Lebanon and Iraq provide expertise, training and sophisticated weapons, according to UN and other experts, and the Houthis' hard-line ideology does the rest.
"They are the most committed, the most ideologically pure and the most aggressive" of Iran's regional allies, says Michael Knights, who has written extensively about the Houthis and is now head of research at Horizon Engage, a New York-based strategic advisory.
"They've been developed by the Iranians in a fast-track way. Things that took the Lebanese Hezbollah 20 years to develop, the Houthis have developed in five." Iran denies arming the Houthis, which would violate a UN embargo. But smuggled Iranian weapons and parts have been seized from numerous shipments bound for Yemen, and a report by UN experts in 2024 documented extensive military ties between the Houthis, Iran and its other allies.
That report estimated that the Houthis had recruited up to 350,000 fighters by 2024, up from just 30,000 in 2015, when Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's civil war against the Houthis and imposed a naval blockade. The Houthis can use relatively inexpensive drones and missiles to target oil and other infrastructure just across the border in Saudi Arabia, as well as tankers off the coast.
And while Iran is believed to supply cutting-edge components like guidance systems, the Houthis can manufacture much of their weaponry domestically. Saudi Arabia boasts an array of US-supplied weapons, including sophisticated aircraft as well as advanced missile defences used against Iran at the height of the war last spring.
But with supplies of high-end interceptors under pressure, it's unclear how long it can ward off attacks -- not only from the Houthis, but from Iran-backed militias in Iraq blamed for an attack that shut down an east-west pipeline crucial for oil exports.
Over the next seven years, Saudi Arabia carried out waves of airstrikes against the Houthis, often killing civilians. An array of Yemeni government forces and southern separatists struggled to push the Houthis back, and the battle lines moved little before a 2022 ceasefire.
The following year, after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the Houthis began attacking Red Sea shipping in what they said was a blockade of Israel. The US and the UK launched waves of strikes against the Houthis beginning in January 2024. The following year, US President Donald Trump ordered an intensified air campaign, with some 2,000 munitions dropped on over 1,000 targets, a US military official told The Associated Press at the time.
The cost of the US munitions alone totalled more than USD 750 million, while the Houthis destroyed seven US MQ-9 Reaper drones, at a cost of more than USD 30 million apiece. An over USD 60 million F/A-18 fighter jet slid off an aircraft carrier. After weeks of US strikes, the Houthis agreed to stop attacking American ships.
But they continued to target Israel, which responded with its own strikes later in 2025, killing the Houthi prime minister along with other senior officials and repeatedly hitting a key port. The Houthis largely kept to the sidelines in the first several months of the Iran war, but in July, they resumed attacks on Saudi Arabia and declared a blockade on Saudi shipping.
In the case of Yemen, the ground fighters opposed to the Houthis are deeply divided and fought each other as recently as January. They include fighters loyal to the Saudi-backed government and southern separatists supported by the United Arab Emirates -- a sometimes rival to the Saudis that withdrew from Yemen in 2019.
"Half of the story is Iranian support, and this is extremely important ... but there's another half of the story, which is the weakness of their adversaries," said Thomas Juneau, a professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa specialising in Iran and Yemen.
"(Yemen's) internationally recognised government is fragmented, it's weak, it's disunited, it's corrupt, and the Houthis have systematically been able to exploit that," he said. In recent weeks, anti-Houthi forces have fallen back from one position after another as the rebels have advanced toward the Bab el-Mandeb, a narrow strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Saudis appear reluctant to enter another full-scale war with the Houthis. A ground campaign would involve prolonged fighting and high casualties. The US, still preoccupied with Iran, also appears keen to stay out. A Saudi mutual defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan signed last month has yet to be activated.
The diplomatic options are also limited. The Houthis are demanding that Saudi Arabia lift its blockade, which would be an admission of defeat in the long-running war and pave the way for even more extensive Iranian aid to the rebels. "As long as US-Iran tensions are not resolved, there will not be significant progress between Saudi Arabia and Iran," Juneau said.
"The Houthis are in a very intransigent mood right now, and they are absolutely not ready to make any kind of concessions." (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel) Now, as the Iran-backed Houthis advance on a key maritime chokepoint and strike Saudi oil facilities, rattling world markets, there is little that can be done to stop them that hasn't been tried before.
That's because the Houthis operate in a large and mountainous territory where they can disperse fighters and military infrastructure while threatening major oil infrastructure and key trade routes. Iran and its allies in Lebanon and Iraq provide expertise, training and sophisticated weapons, according to UN and other experts, and the Houthis' hard-line ideology does the rest.
"They are the most committed, the most ideologically pure and the most aggressive" of Iran's regional allies, says Michael Knights, who has written extensively about the Houthis and is now head of research at Horizon Engage, a New York-based strategic advisory.
"They've been developed by the Iranians in a fast-track way. Things that took the Lebanese Hezbollah 20 years to develop, the Houthis have developed in five." The well-armed Iranian ally has room to runThe Houthis have a wide array of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones -- many resembling Iranian models -- that can reach all the Gulf states as well as Israel.
They have also used sophisticated anti-ship missiles and naval drones to strike vessels in the Red Sea, threatening a critical trade route. Iran denies arming the Houthis, which would violate a UN embargo. But smuggled Iranian weapons and parts have been seized from numerous shipments bound for Yemen, and a report by UN experts in 2024 documented extensive military ties between the Houthis, Iran and its other allies.
That report estimated that the Houthis had recruited up to 350,000 fighters by 2024, up from just 30,000 in 2015, when Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's civil war against the Houthis and imposed a naval blockade. The Houthis can use relatively inexpensive drones and missiles to target oil and other infrastructure just across the border in Saudi Arabia, as well as tankers off the coast.
And while Iran is believed to supply cutting-edge components like guidance systems, the Houthis can manufacture much of their weaponry domestically. Saudi Arabia boasts an array of US-supplied weapons, including sophisticated aircraft as well as advanced missile defences used against Iran at the height of the war last spring.
But with supplies of high-end interceptors under pressure, it's unclear how long it can ward off attacks -- not only from the Houthis, but from Iran-backed militias in Iraq blamed for an attack that shut down an east-west pipeline crucial for oil exports.
Airstrikes have had limited effectSaudi Arabia went to war against the Houthis in early 2015, after the rebels seized much of northern and central Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, from Yemen's internationally recognised government. Even then, the Saudis feared the growth of a well-armed Iranian proxy on their border.
Over the next seven years, Saudi Arabia carried out waves of airstrikes against the Houthis, often killing civilians. An array of Yemeni government forces and southern separatists struggled to push the Houthis back, and the battle lines moved little before a 2022 ceasefire.
The following year, after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the Houthis began attacking Red Sea shipping in what they said was a blockade of Israel. The US and the UK launched waves of strikes against the Houthis beginning in January 2024. The following year, US President Donald Trump ordered an intensified air campaign, with some 2,000 munitions dropped on over 1,000 targets, a US military official told The Associated Press at the time.
The cost of the US munitions alone totalled more than USD 750 million, while the Houthis destroyed seven US MQ-9 Reaper drones, at a cost of more than USD 30 million apiece. An over USD 60 million F/A-18 fighter jet slid off an aircraft carrier. After weeks of US strikes, the Houthis agreed to stop attacking American ships.
But they continued to target Israel, which responded with its own strikes later in 2025, killing the Houthi prime minister along with other senior officials and repeatedly hitting a key port. The Houthis largely kept to the sidelines in the first several months of the Iran war, but in July, they resumed attacks on Saudi Arabia and declared a blockade on Saudi shipping.
Any lasting defeat would require ground troopsAs recent conflicts have shown, air power is rarely effective without ground troops who can move in and seize territory after strikes. In the case of Yemen, the ground fighters opposed to the Houthis are deeply divided and fought each other as recently as January.
They include fighters loyal to the Saudi-backed government and southern separatists supported by the United Arab Emirates -- a sometimes rival to the Saudis that withdrew from Yemen in 2019. "Half of the story is Iranian support, and this is extremely important ...
but there's another half of the story, which is the weakness of their adversaries," said Thomas Juneau, a professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa specialising in Iran and Yemen. "(Yemen's) internationally recognised government is fragmented, it's weak, it's disunited, it's corrupt, and the Houthis have systematically been able to exploit that," he said.
In recent weeks, anti-Houthi forces have fallen back from one position after another as the rebels have advanced toward the Bab el-Mandeb, a narrow strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Saudis appear reluctant to enter another full-scale war with the Houthis.
A ground campaign would involve prolonged fighting and high casualties. The US, still preoccupied with Iran, also appears keen to stay out. A Saudi mutual defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan signed last month has yet to be activated. The diplomatic options are also limited.
The Houthis are demanding that Saudi Arabia lift its blockade, which would be an admission of defeat in the long-running war and pave the way for even more extensive Iranian aid to the rebels. "As long as US-Iran tensions are not resolved, there will not be significant progress between Saudi Arabia and Iran," Juneau said.
"The Houthis are in a very intransigent mood right now, and they are absolutely not ready to make any kind of concessions.
The Saudi-led coalition announced it would take "deterrent measures" after stating that a Houthi drone targeted Mecca, a claim the Iran-backed group swiftly rejected as a "lie." This alleged incident has intensified tensions within a broader regional conflict where the Houthis have recently declared a maritime blockade and seized control of Yemen's Red Sea coast, threatening key shipping lanes used for Saudi oil exports.