On September 19th, folks across several Saudi cities didn't get a wink of sleep. Out of nowhere, Houthi forces launched a massive barrage of missiles and drones in one of the biggest attacks in recent memory—timing it right after Washington gave Saudi Arabia the green light to buy a fresh batch of heavy weaponry.
Local reports say residents in the capital, Riyadh, were woken up in the middle of the night by air defense warnings telling everyone to stay locked indoors. Around three in the morning, an AFP reporter on the ground heard two loud explosions rock the city. It was the first time air raid sirens had echoed through the capital since fighting flared up again in July.
It wasn't just Riyadh, either. Sirens were blaring across Jeddah, Abha, Taif, and out on the Farasan Islands in the Red Sea. Over in the Al-Kharj region, home to major strategic air bases, military units went on high alert. Intelligence-tracking accounts online reported that the Houthis were aiming straight for King Salman Military Airport, just south of Riyadh—the core nerve center where the Saudis base their advanced fighter jets and run their air defense command. Still, neither the Saudi government nor the Houthi leadership has issued a formal, final statement on the night's events.
The tension had been building up to this for a while. Earlier, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree publicly accused Saudi F-15s of pounding Taiz province 26 times, claiming Saudi jets had rained down more than 300 airstrikes in just the past week. Ever since the situation soured in July, the Houthis haven't just been targeting Saudi shipping in the Red Sea; last week, they seized strategic islands and stretches of coastline near the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, taking aim at oil and gas infrastructure as well.
Sitting here at a local coffee stall, watching the motorbikes kick up dust along the street while reading the news, you can't help but feel it. War might be happening thousands of miles away, but whenever the Middle East flares up, the rest of the world feels the ground start to shake.
