THINKING ALOUD
Why the Houthis are striking Saudi Arabia
Attacks on Riyadh’s soil suggest the Yemeni civil war is spreading beyond its borders
WHEN smoke rose over Saudi Aramco’s refinery south of Riyadh on Oct 3, it was more than another strike in a long-running feud between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Houthis.
It showed that Yemen’s civil war – frozen for four years under a United Nations-brokered truce – has fully returned to Riyadh’s heartland. It also showed that the kingdom’s hopes of leaving the conflict on its own terms are fading.
The escalation did not come out of nowhere. The truce began to unravel in July, when Saudi jets attempted to prevent an Iranian aircraft from landing in Sanaa, said the Houthis, who then declared a naval ban on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.
