Saudi Arabia Bombs Houthis After Red Sea Coast Seizure — SkimNews
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- Houthis (Ansar Allah) seized Yemen's Red Sea coastline and strategic islands in the Bab al-Mandab Strait on September 10, 2026, gaining the upper hand in the long-running conflict.
- Saudi Arabia launched air strikes on Houthi positions in early October 2026; France, Pakistan, and the United States sent personnel to assist the kingdom's counteroffensive.
- The July 13, 2026 bombing of the runway at Sanaa International Airport—as an Iranian civilian plane carrying a Houthi delegation returning from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral attempted to land—officially ended the truce that had largely held since April 2022.
- The Houthis retaliated on July 20 by announcing a blockade on Saudi Arabia, targeting oil exports through the Bab al-Mandab Strait and subsequently striking Saudi petroleum facilities and oil tankers.
- The Houthis have used Anthropic's Claude AI tool to develop guided weapons and have manufactured arms inside Yemen using raw materials sourced from Iran.
- The UAE withdrew from Yemen in January 2026 under Saudi pressure after Saudi Arabia bombed Emirati ships transporting weapons to the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, which had seized eastern territory in December 2025.
- The Presidential Leadership Council's inability to repel the Houthi Red Sea advance—even with Saudi backing—has exposed the ruling government's internal divisions, corruption, and ineffectiveness.
Why it matters: Saudi Arabia's renewed bombing campaign risks disruption of Red Sea oil shipments through the Bab al-Mandab Strait—already targeted by Houthi strikes on Saudi petroleum facilities—directly threatening Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 plan, which the March 2022 Jeddah attack already proved vulnerable. With France, Pakistan, and the US now backing the Saudi campaign, a four-year truce has collapsed into a multinational military effort.
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