A deadly Houthi attack on Riyadh’s international airport has highlighted how the Yemeni group is reframing its perceived “Iran proxy” role and shifting its regional focus to its ongoing battle against Saudi Arabia. The October 10 strike, in which 13 people were killed and hundreds injured, was the most violent episode on Saudi Arabian soil […]
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José Niño Unfiltered | October 11, 2026
In September 2026, Ansar Allah, derisively labeled as the Houthis in Western foreign policy circles, redrew the map of western Yemen in a matter of days. Its fighters swept down the Red Sea coast, seized Mocha on September 10, then pushed through Dhubab and took Mayyun Island at the heart of the Bab el-Mandeb strait the following day, consolidating control over Yemen’s entire Red Sea coastline and roughly 5,400 square kilometers of newly gained territory. Yemen’s Saudi-backed government answered on October 4 when Presidential Leadership Council head Rashad al-Alimi announced Operation Dawn of Yemen, vowing to keep fighting until the country was “liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia,” with 100 Saudi coalition fighter jets providing air cover and Ansar Allah firing missiles at targets inside the kingdom in response.
Washington reached for a familiar script. Secretary of State Marco Rubio branded Ansarh an Iranian proxy, and Tehran fired back on September 9. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei wrote on X, “Marco Rubio’s lies cannot replace facts. Ansarallah is an independent Yemeni actor that makes its own decisions; it takes orders from no one and acts as nobody’s proxy.”
On the question of Ansar Allah’s relationship to Iran, the record sides with those who emphasize the movement’s homegrown roots. In the 1980s, Zaydi religious networks in the northern province of Saada organized study groups and summer camps to resist the Wahhabi and Salafi outreach that Saudi money spread across the region. Around 1992, those networks crystallized as the Believing Youth, an educational and social revival movement dedicated to Zaydi theology and the preservation of a tradition stretching back a millennium. Saada’s poverty and its chronic neglect by Sanaa fueled the grievances that eventually became a military force.
Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi sharpened that network into a political cause after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. He accused President Ali Abdullah Saleh of running a corrupt government that neglected Saada, sidelined Zaydis, and surrendered Yemeni sovereignty to Saudi and American interests. His followers adopted a chant that read in full: “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam.” The chant named foreign powers, but its domestic meaning was clear: Yemeni authorities understood that a movement chanting “death to America” today could be chanting “death to the president” tomorrow. Palestine and the Second Intifada also featured prominently in Hussein’s sermons, which cast Israel as an occupying power and the United States as its enabler. The antisemitism in the Yemeni resistance’s messaging reflected a long-held hostility to Jewry’s machinations among the Yemeni population.
Saleh went to war against the movement in 2004, and his forces killed Hussein on September 10. Leadership passed to his younger brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. During the 2011 uprising the movement took the name Ansar Allah and pitched itself as a national force against corruption and inequality.
The episode that best exposes the proxy myth unfolded in September 2014. Iranian representatives reportedly urged Ansar Allah not to seize the capital, and Ansar Allah marched in anyway. HuffPost broke the story in April 2015, citing American officials familiar with the intelligence. One official told the outlet “It is wrong to think of the Houthis as a proxy force for Iran.” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan added: “It remains our assessment that Iran does not exert command and control over the Houthis in Yemen.” The Wilson Center also called attention to the aforementioned restraint Iran advocated for: “In 2014, Iran reportedly advised the Houthis against taking over Sanaa, but they pressed on.”
Thomas Juneau of the University of Ottawa built the academic foundation for this view. His 2016 study in International Affairs argued that “the Houthis are not Iranian proxies; Tehran’s influence in Yemen is marginal.” In a Washington Post op-ed that same year, he wrote: “It is simply inaccurate to claim that the Houthis are Iranian proxies.” Juneau has since acknowledged deeper cooperation, yet he told The Iran Primer : “The Houthis are fiercely nationalist, and do not take orders from Iran. Instead, they work together, closely, on the basis of their common interests.”
Helen Lackner, among the most respected Western scholars of Yemen, put it plainly on Democracy Now: “The Houthis are not Iranian proxies. They are not Iranian servants. They don’t do what the Iranians tell them to do. They make their own decisions.” She described how the alliance functions: “If their decisions and their policies coincide with those of Iran, then there’s no issue. But if they don’t, they don’t do it.”
Allison Minor challenged the proxy narrative directly in a Brookings essay: “Rigorous definitions of the term ‘proxy’ require that the sponsor has some means of controlling the proxy, as this is what differentiates a proxy from a partner/ally. In truth, the Houthis are not an Iranian proxy, even though they benefit from Iranian support.” Minor pointed to the unilateral ceasefire Ansar Allah declared with Saudi Arabia in 2019, even as Iran sought escalation, and stressed their possession of independent revenue, local arms production, and diverse supply lines as other indicators of autonomous production and decision-making.
Others well-versed in Yemeni affairs reached the same conclusion years earlier. Saudi journalist and filmmaker Safa al-Ahmad, who reported from inside Ansar Allah territory, told PBS Frontline that Iran’s ties to the group were “vastly overblown” and that “the Iranians can’t just pick up the phone and tell the Houthis what to do.”
Even the hawkish Institute for the Study of War agrees. Its September 18 update stated, “The Houthis are not an Iranian proxy, although their objectives often overlap with Iran’s strategic interests.” It added, “The Houthis are an independent partner of Iran and may resist potential Iranian pressure to halt their campaigns, however.”
None of this means Iran sits on the sidelines. The Associated Press reported in late September that officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps helped Ansar Allah with planning during the coastal offensive. Yet researcher Nicholas Brumfield told Al Jazeera that the campaign reportedly involved 76,000 Yemeni fighters, raised “using their own governance apparatuses,” and that mounting evidence points to Ansar Allah boasting a burgeoning domestic arms industry.
Ansar Allah ultimately behaves as a national liberation movement that shares many of Iran’s enemies and welcomes Iranian assistance, yet it charts its own course whenever its interests diverge. It does not need Tehran to steer it any more than any serious and credible resistance movement needs a foreign master. It grew from Yemeni grievances, and it will naturally seek allies such as Iran that oppose the same aggressive powers—Israel and the United States—that work tirelessly to destabilize West Asia. Movements like it already shake the foundations of the regional order. If the current momentum holds, Ansar Allah could reshape not only Yemen but also the Saudi provinces of Asir, Jizan and Najran, lands that many Yemenis still regard as their own and that Saudi Arabia locked down after the 1934 war between the two countries.
What started as a revolt against a corrupt president in a neglected mountain province has become a war that stretches from Taiz to Riyadh. With Ansar Allah astride the Bab el-Mandeb and Iran pressing on the Strait of Hormuz, two of the world’s most vital chokepoints now sit within reach of forces Washington cannot push back. If Asir, Jizan and Najran ever slip from Riyadh’s grip, historians will trace the new map back to Saada, not to Tehran.
File image.
The Houthis (Ansar Allah) on October 14 released footage showing an operation against Saudi-backed forces at Dhubab airport, saying their fighters had driven back troops massing there, burned and captured military vehicles and taken prisoners.
The footage emerged as Houthi forces captured several positions in western Lahij province over the past 48 hours. They advanced along the Aghbarah and al-Mudaribah fronts, taking al-Sharjan, al-Ka’lalah, Harwazu, Jabal Harwazu, al-Khabakhib and Lower al-Mudaribah, among other locations.
The captured positions had been held by the Giants Brigades, the National Shield Forces and armed members of the Subaihah tribes.
Fighting around Dhubab had severely depleted the capabilities of the Giants Brigades and Subaihah fighters, with many commanders reportedly killed.
The Houthi advance toward Ras al-Arah and Khor Umairah is expected to continue, potentially setting the stage for a further push toward Aden.
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The developments underscore the failure of the Saudi-backed counterattack launched on October 5. Rather than reversing Houthi gains and securing the front around Bab al-Mandab, the campaign has been followed by continued fighting at Dhubab airport and further territorial losses for coalition-aligned forces in western Lahij.
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Illustrative image.
Yemen’s Houthis (Ansar Allah) are attempting to manufacture medium-range ballistic missiles modeled on an advanced Iranian weapon, using components traced to a Chinese supplier, according to a report published on October 14 by The Wall Street Journal.
The findings, based on an assessment by the weapons-monitoring organization Conflict Armament Research, point to an effort by the Houthis to expand domestic missile production and reduce their reliance on complete weapons systems supplied by Iran.
The proposed missile is modeled on Iran’s Kheibar Shekan, a solid-fuel, precision-guided ballistic missile with a reported range of up to 1,900 kilometers. Such a range would place all of Saudi Arabia and Israel within reach.
Yemeni authorities intercepted two shipments containing missile-related components in 2025 and provided information about them to Conflict Armament Research in July 2026, according to The Journal. The equipment was concealed among other commercial goods.
The seized materials included custom-made metal components for missile motors and airframes, flight-stabilizing fins, parts of solid-propellant rocket motors, and heat-resistant materials designed to protect sections of a missile from the extreme temperatures generated during flight. Authorities also recovered tools, testing equipment, and raw materials.
Shipping documents examined as part of the investigation linked the specialized components to an unnamed Chinese precision-metal manufacturer that advertises expertise in custom aerospace parts.
Some of the imported goods had potential civilian applications, while others were specifically designed for use in missiles.
The Kheibar Shekan was unveiled by Iran in 2022. It uses solid fuel, allowing for relatively rapid preparation for launch, and is designed to maneuver during the terminal phase of flight, complicating interception by air defenses.
Iran used the missile against United States military bases during fighting in the Middle East earlier this year, according to The Journal.
Chinese companies have become a major source of goods seized from shipments bound for the Houthis, according to data cited by the newspaper from United Nations reporting and weapons investigators. The supply networks include components that can be used in missiles and drones, as well as other dual-use equipment.
The investigation does not establish how far the Houthis have progressed toward producing a functional missile based on the Kheibar Shekan. It does, however, show that the Houthis are expanding their weapons-manufacturing capabilities and are no longer relying fully on Iran.
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Yemen’s Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree announced on October 14 that the group had attacked Saudi Aramco facilities in Dhahran and Riyadh and at King Khalid International Airport, threatening further strikes against the kingdom.
In a statement, Saree said the operation involved “a large number of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones.” The spokesman claimed the weapons struck their targets accurately, causing destruction and fires at the targeted sites.
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said a day earlier that an attack had caused a limited fire in an administrative building at Aramco’s complex in Dhahran, in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. No injuries or fatalities were reported.
A source at the company told Reuters that a ballistic missile struck an office tower in the complex, damaging its top three floors.
Saree said the attacks were retaliation for Saudi strikes on Sanaa and other areas under Houthi control. He claimed Saudi Arabia had carried out 2,281 airstrikes and missile attacks against Yemen during the current escalation, accusing the kingdom of committing dozens of crimes.
The spokesman warned that Houthi operations against targets inside Saudi Arabia would continue over the coming days, specifically threatening airports and oil installations.
He urged international shipping companies, civilians and workers to stay away from the targeted sites and called for the immediate evacuation of the sites, declaring them “legitimate targets” for Houthi forces.
The latest threats came after the Saudi-led coalition launched strikes against Houthi-held areas a day earlier, including the al-Sabah fuel facility on the outskirts of Sanaa. The coalition had warned civilians to evacuate the area, saying the operation was intended to neutralize Houthi capabilities to threaten Saudi Arabia, Yemen and international waterways.
The Saudi Civil Defense said debris from two intercepted Houthi missiles fell on residential areas in Riyadh, injuring four people and damaging 15 homes.
On October 14, residents reported hearing new explosions in the capital, and the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted a ballistic missile launched toward Riyadh. No casualties or damage were immediately reported from that incident.
The exchanges follow a series of Houthi attacks on Saudi airports. A strike on King Khalid International Airport on October 10 killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, according to Saudi authorities. Another attack the following day killed one person and injured 11, further disrupting aviation operations in the kingdom.
The renewed fighting is part of a broader escalation in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is backing forces aligned with the internationally recognized government against the Houthis. The Saudi-led campaign intensified after Houthi forces made advances along Yemen’s Red Sea coast toward the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Saree said the Houthis would continue to match what he called Saudi “escalation with escalation” and maintain a policy of “blockade for blockade” until Saudi Arabia ends its military campaign and lifts the blockade on Yemen.
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Capitalism, fascism, wars, the Epstein class, endemic poverty and suffering – it’s a death cult in a theater near you.
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It’s hard to know whether to break the TV set or throw up when listening to the European governments rushing to condemn the air strike by Yemeni forces on Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid international airport.
The blast from a ballistic missile that slammed into the airport at the weekend, October 12, killed at least 13 civilians and injured scores of other travellers. Horrific video footage shows the moment the missile explosion ripped through a terminal lounge.
European leaders immediately in a coordinated fashion trotted out condemnations of Yemeni “terrorism” and vowed solidarity and support for Saudi Arabia. U.S. President Donald Trump called it “a terrible thing.” (As if bombing schoolchildren is not quite a terrible thing.)
Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, and Spain all issued strident denunciations of the Yemeni attack.
The strike on the Saudi capital came after the Ansar Allah-led Yemen Armed Forces had given ample warning to the Saudis that their airports would be targeted and for civilians to avoid the areas. The airports were kept open for business as usual. The Yemenis have said that the attack on Riyadh and other Saudi airports are retaliation for weeks of multiple air strikes by the Saudis on Yemeni civilian centers.
Hundreds of Yemeni civilians have been killed since Saudi Arabia broke a four-year truce with an air strike on the international airport in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, on July 13. Saudi warplanes, U.S.-supplied F-15s and European Typhoon jets, have been continously bombing homes across Yemen. This week, two days after the Riyadh strike, at least nine people including five children were killed in air raids on houses in Taiz city and in northern al Jawf province. Al Masirah TV footage showed a distraught father holding up a child’s shredded body amid rubble. There was no condemnation of that atrocity from any European leader.
As Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, former Irish Members of the European Parliament, point out in their podcast this week, the official European reaction is utter hypocrisy and a cynical distortion of the conflict on the Arabian Peninsula.
Britain and France in particular, along with the United States, have backed the Saudi aggression against Yemen beginning in 2015. Over seven years, that aggression killed up to 400,000 Yemenis through air strikes and a blockade on humanitarian needs.
The European Union remained largely silent for seven years. No protests were made to Washington, Paris or London. Ambassadors were not summoned, sanctions were not imposed.
The return to hostilities that began with Saudi air strikes on Sanaa in July have been enabled by U.S. and Britain supplying warplanes, military advisors and intelligence.
None of the European governments have bothered to condemn this recent U.S. and UK-backed slaughter.
So, it is nauseating when one hears British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband saying he is “appalled” by the strike on Riyadh airport. And other European leaders vowing “full solidarity with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul condemned Yemen’s “terrorist act.”
His French counterpart said France stood with Saudi Arabia “in defending its territory and infrastructue.” (No mention of what the Saudis have been doing for years to Yemen’s territory.)
Referring to the strike on Riyadh without any context, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni said: “Attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure are unacceptable and must cease.” (Yes, indeed, so why not tell that to the Saudis who are doing it deliberately on a massive scale with support from Washington and London?)
What is instructive here is not just the sickening hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy. It is the manifestation of a systematic corruption and criminal responsibility. This is not just one more example of a flawed European political class whose judgement is suspect. What is increasingly apparent is the totality of the corruption.
The same European supporters of Saudi monarchs waging a genocidal war on Yemen are also contemporaneously supporting the Israeli Zionist regime in its extermination of Palestinians. They are complicit in enabling the U.S. aggression against Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. They are sponsors of the NeoNazi regime in Kiev to keep fighting a proxy war against Russia despite more than one million Ukrainian military casualties and the risk of nuclear conflagration.
The death cult of Western capitalism is on full display in multiple theaters, exposing the organic evil at work. There is sense that all of Western imperialist history is now on display in one final orgy of barbarity.
In previous times, the death cult operated discreetly in seemingly disparate conflict scenarios. Wars on different continents seemed somehow unconnected. The Western media would in the past reliably cover up the crimes by distorting the motives and objectives with false narratives and (laughable) claims of noble purpose. The West was “defending democracy,” “fighting communism,” “protecting human rights,” or “waging war on terrorism,” or some other pretext that in isolation and with loads of media propaganda managed to fool a lot of people as somehow plausible.
What’s happening now, it seems, is a concatenation of wars that ultimately exposes the essential system that drives the violence, and its insatiable lust for human suffering.
It is impossible to work for such a vile system, the death cult of capitalism, without also being oblivious to its evil ways. To remain oblivious necessitates denial or lies. That deception might be tenable for occasional and seemingly disparate scenarios. But not when the system is exposed in its infernal entirety.
American and European wars in the past might have succeeded in being sold to the Western public as one-off wars and misadventures. We think of the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Latin American, Africa, former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and more recently Libya.
In more recent years, as consciousness evolved, the public began discerning and decrying “endless wars”.
But now the world is witnessing a totalizing of the war machine that goes by the name of “Western democracy”.
What’s happening in Ukraine, Gaza, Iran and Yemen is not coincidence. It is the death cult on display and unable to hide itself. It manifests too in attacking and locking up Western citizens who condemn genocide or who simply call for peace.
Capitalism, fascism, wars, the Epstein class, endemic poverty and suffering – it’s a death cult in a theater near you.
The politicians, governments, media and pundits who promote it or serve it are seen for what they are.
Three months after Saudi Arabia resumed its aggression against Yemen’s Ansar Allah-led government by attacking Sanaa International Airport in July, the conflict continues to spiral.
Saudi-backed forces claimed that they managed to cut off the main road connecting the Red Sea port city of Mokha with the Bab al-Mandeb strait on Monday, October 12, in a bid to reverse Ansar Allah’s major territorial gains along the Red Sea coast.
This came after Ansar Allah launched an intensified military operation that resulted in encircling Yemen’s southwestern city of Taiz last week. Taiz has been under the control of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government for roughly the last ten years.
As Yemen’s third-largest city, the encirclement of Taiz constitutes a critical development in the country’s armed conflict and geopolitical landscape, especially with a vital supply route linking Taiz with Aden being cut off. For over a decade, Aden has served as the temporary capital of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.
Ansar Allah’s encirclement of Taiz sparked heavy ground clashes with the Saudi-backed forces, while Saudi warplanes intensified their strikes on the city as well as other parts of Yemen.
However, those airstrikes have not deterred the Ansar Allah-led armed forces from targeting Saudi airports and vital energy facilities with missiles, and drones.
The Yemeni Armed Forces’ spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e confirmed on Sunday, October 11, that the attacks disrupted air traffic at King Khalid Airport in Riyadh and King Fahd Airport in Dammam. They also caused fires in Aramco’s Shuqdam gas and Tanajib oil facilities in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.
On Monday, Ansar Allah announced the targeting of King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh once again with a ballistic missile, and Khamis Mushait Air Base in southern Saudi Arabia with a drone.
As a result, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation extended the suspension of flight operations at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh until October 17, 2026.
The Yemeni movement clarified that its latest attacks on Saudi airports, alongside other energy and military facilities, came in response to the recent Saudi strikes on civilian infrastructure across Yemen. This included an attack on a passenger bus in Taiz, reportedly killing two civilians and injuring seven others.
Commenting on the attacks on Riyadh’s main airport, US President Donald Trump told reporters he is considering joining Saudi Arabia in striking Ansar Allah in Yemen.
“We just found out about the recent attack. So, we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly,” Trump said.
For its part, the Islamic Republic of Iran called on Saudi Arabia to resolve the conflict through diplomacy rather than a military approach.
According to Saudi and Iranian media outlets, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi proposed on Sunday that Tehran mediate a dialogue between Riyadh and Ansar Allah, during a telephone call with his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
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Illustrative image. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Katherine Walters)
A Saudi-led coalition carried out strikes on oil facilities west of Sanaa on October 13 after warning residents to evacuate the area.
The strikes followed an announcement by coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki urging civilians to leave the Yemen Petroleum Company’s Al-Sabaha Central Station and nearby storage areas ahead of a planned operation. Al-Maliki released a map identifying the area covered by the warning but did not specify the intended military objective.
The Saudi-led coalition appeared to be borrowing a tactic used by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza and later in Lebanon and Iran, issuing mapped evacuation warnings before carrying out strikes in designated areas.
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Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the targeted facility was “empty of petroleum derivatives and has no military value for targeting,” citing a source within the oil company.
The Yemen Petroleum Company separately said its storage facilities were empty and that the strike would not affect oil reserves or fuel supplies for residents. The facility lies on a hill overlooking western Sanaa, where a nearby fuel station is used by the public.
Before the strikes, Saree warned that any Saudi attack on Sanaa would be met with a “firm and painful” response in Riyadh. Following the attack, the Houthis threatened Saudi oil infrastructure, identifying Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Dammam, an Aramco refinery in Riyadh and King Khalid International Airport as potential targets.
The spokesman described Aramco facilities as “legitimate targets” and urged workers and civilians to stay away from them.
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The escalation comes after a series of Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, including a deadly attack on Riyadh’s international airport on October 10 that killed at least 13 people and injured more than 300.
The attacks have disrupted aviation and heightened pressure on Saudi authorities to strengthen the kingdom’s air defenses.
The latest exchange adds to the widening conflict between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition, which supports forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government. The Houthis will certainly execute their threat and respond with full force, possibly within hours.
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The Houthis (Ansar Allah) advanced on multiple fronts in southwestern Yemen on October 13, tightening pressure on Saudi-backed forces around Taiz while threatening to outflank government-aligned troops defending their remaining positions near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.
In Taiz, Houthi fighters reached the city’s western entrance and captured the al-Hangar checkpoint, with footage showing their presence at the position.
The advances came as Houthi forces pushed south of the city, clearing the areas of Anbian and Wateer, as well as positions along the approaches to Taiz.
The latest gains threaten to further isolate Saudi-backed forces defending Taiz. The Houthis had already tightened their encirclement of the city after capturing Turbah, south of Taiz, on October 4, cutting off most supply routes from government-held territory.
The advance toward al-Hangar and the fighting south of the city put additional pressure on the remaining positions and routes connecting the city with areas held by the government.
Farther south, in neighboring Lahj province, Houthi forces reportedly cleared al-Sharjan, al-Ka’ala, Harazu and al-Khabakhib in the province’s western areas.
The advance adds pressure on Saudi-backed forces deployed along the approaches to Bab al-Mandab, where the Southern Giants Brigades have been fighting to regain territory lost to the Houthis.
The two fronts pose distinct but connected threats to the Saudi-backed deployment. Around Taiz, the Houthis are tightening their hold on the city and its surrounding approaches. In western Lahj, their advance threatens to outflank the Southern Giants Brigades and other government-aligned units near Bab al-Mandab and Kahbub, potentially cutting those units’ routes for reinforcement or retreat.
If the Houthi advance in western Lahj continues, Saudi-backed forces near the strait risk being isolated as the Houthis pressure the forces’ positions from the north and east.
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