The attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh this week, which killed three Saudi nationals on October 8, including a Saudia pilot, are not the first time the Iran-backed Houthi militia has targeted Riyadh’s international airport. The first such attack occurred in November 2017. Other air transit hubs across the kingdom have faced repeated strikes, including Abha International Airport. But causing a disruption of this magnitude -one that would make global headlines and paralyze civilian traffic in the capital- has long been a Houthi dream. Having applied this kind of pressure against Israel, the movement is now bringing it directly back to Saudi Arabia.
The strike on Riyadh comes at a critical moment in the Houthis’ territorial expansion and land grab inside Yemen, as the Iran-backed Houthis were pushed back from the Bab al-Mandab Strait in a counteroffensive by the Southern Giants Brigades in Yemen, supported by both the Yemeni government and the Saudis.
