Iranian-backed Houthis attack Saudi Arabia again with drones

In what has become a weekly phenomenon over the past few months, Iranian-backed Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia with kamikaze drones in Yemen on Monday night. The Houthi told Iranian media about the attack; a form of bragging, designed to showcase their capabilities to their IRGC handlers in Tehran.

According to the news agency Tasnim, Yahya Sari, the spokesman for the Houthi “Yemeni Armed Forces,” announced the drone operation for military purposes at Abuha Airport and King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait. “He announced that the operation was carried out with three Kasef K2 UAVs and that the operation was very accurate,” the report said. “This operation was carried out to legally defend the crimes of the attackers and to continue the siege of our country,” the Houthis said. Houthis try to take Yemen away from the Saudi-backed government. Riyadh intervened there in 2015.

Israel and other countries are worried that Iran will gain a foothold in Yemen that could threaten the Red Sea and the Bab al-Manbad Strait between Yemen and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. Iran allegedly has drones that it can deliver to Yemen, or can deliver, that can fly the distance of 2,000 km to reach Israel. Iran has expanded Houthi capabilities with technical knowledge for air defense, ballistic missiles and drones.

Saudi Arabia supports the hard-pressed Yemeni fighters in Marib. The Houthis can take the city, but the US wants a peace agreement. The last US government put the Houthis on a terror list for a week before leaving office, while the Biden government then removed them.

These one-time terrorists, now militants, have stepped up attacks on Saudi Arabia since they were removed from the list. It looks like the US is quietly seeking an end to the conflict. It looks like Iran is trying to use the Houthis as leverage to test missiles and drones.