Saudi missiles hit the Houthi-controlled Yemen Petroleum Company’s al-Sabaha facility near the Yemeni capital of Sana’a on Tuesday night. The Saudi strikes came in response to the Houthis’ earlier targeting of King Khalid International Airport on Saturday, when 12 people were killed. Another individual died in a similar attack the following day.   

The ongoing and deadly exchanges of fire accompany a fierce ground conflict now under way in Yemen between the Iran-backed Houthis and the forces of the Saudi-supported Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), representing the legally constituted government of Yemen. Close observation of the events in Yemen showcases a dramatic imbalance in the combatant sides: between the relatively coherent alliance of which the Houthis are a part and the dysfunctional and divided gathering to which the Saudis are connected.  

In September, responding to Saudi air strikes on Sana’a, the Houthis launched a ground offensive toward the strategically vital Bab el Mandeb Strait. They succeeded in gaining control of this area. Roughly 7 per cent to 12 per cent of global seaborne oil trade and millions of barrels of oil and natural gas per day pass through the strait from the Persian Gulf. With Hormuz still contested between the US and the Iranians, the Saudis had been using Bab el Mandeb as an alternative route for getting oil out to Asian markets. Effective control of the strait by the Houthis has long represented a strategic nightmare for Riyadh. Indeed, the Saudi and Emirati intervention in 2015, widely and wrongly dubbed a failure in the west, had successfully prevented this eventuality – until now.  

A struggle between two camps is under way

A struggle between two camps is under way

In early October, the Saudis and the PLC launched a counter offensive, dubbed ‘Fajr al-Yaman’ (Yemen Dawn). It is still under way. The amount of progress that has been made is........

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