Escalating Battle in Yemen: What Is Safir Arjan's Position on the Battlefield?

The Houthis are seeking to raise the costs of the Yemen war for Saudi Arabia by intensifying attacks and clashes.

Forces aligned with the Yemeni government announced on Thursday that they had intercepted a drone flying towards Medina in Saudi Arabia and fired a missile at Riyadh amid escalating clashes between them and Yemen's Houthis.

Fighting between Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and Iran-aligned Houthi rebels along the country's western coast of the Red Sea has intensified, along with the expansion of Houthi attacks on oil facilities and airports in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

List of 3 items List 1 of 3 lack of food in Yemen's Taiz while the Houthi siege has reached the sources

List 2 of 3 Saudi-led coalition intercepted the Houthi missile that was launched towards Riyadh

List 3 of 3 The Iraqi Prime Minister told the Saudi Crown Prince that Iraqi soil will not be used for attacks

End of List On Wednesday, Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, also known as Ansarullah, or God's Supporters, said the group's forces had carried out "high-quality military operations against Aramco in Dhahran," as well as attacks on Riyadh airport and a refinery in the capital.

He added: "The operation will continue in the coming days targeting the airports and oil facilities of the enemy of Saudi Arabia."

A Saudi energy ministry official confirmed that a building belonging to Aramco in Dhahran was hit, causing "limited fire" but "no damage or loss of life". Dhahran is home to Aramco's headquarters, a vast complex that includes numerous buildings and residential complexes.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition launched attacks against the Houthis' headquarters in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, which the armed group seized in 2014 and has held ever since. The coalition fought the Houthis, who also seized large amounts of Yemeni military assets, until a ceasefire was agreed in 2022. This ceasefire has been broken in recent months.

Al-Jazeera reporter Youssef Mawry said in a report from Sana'a that the war has turned into an exchange of blows. The Iran-backed group "will continue to carry out these airstrikes, aiming to fight fire with fire - airstrike for airstrike, capital for capital, airport for airport and energy facility for energy facility."

Which sites have the Houthis targeted in Saudi Arabia?

Recent Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have mostly targeted key infrastructure on the outskirts of Riyadh, but they appear to be moving closer to the city center.

Houthi attacks on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport over the weekend left 14 dead and more than 300 injured. Houthi attacks on other airports, including Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia, where two people were killed, and Saudi Aramco energy facilities have also been reported.

Riyadh airport will remain closed until at least Saturday as several airlines canceled flights, clearing the skies of the kingdom's capital, officials said.

Al Jazeera's Mawry said Saudi Arabia had "much more to lose" from retaliatory strikes that would disrupt air traffic, with Sanaa's international airport closed for many years due to damage sustained during years of civil war. Currently, there are no Yemeni planes at this airport.

In addition, by disrupting security, the Houthis show that Saudi Arabia will incur increasing economic costs for its intervention in Yemen. Earlier this year, the Houthis similarly launched attacks on Saudi-linked vessels in and around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on the shipping route for oil exports since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in March.

The kingdom is due to host a major investment conference in Riyadh later this month, dubbed "Davos in the Desert", but it is now unclear whether the event will take place amid the attacks.

Organizers of the six Kings Slam tennis tournament, originally scheduled to start next week in Riyadh, have announced that the tournament will be postponed until December.

Saudi Arabia is also preparing to host the World Cup in 2034.

"These military attacks by the Houthi forces are to create a campaign of pressure, which also has negative economic effects," said Al Jazeera reporter Zain Basrawi, who reports from Doha, the capital of Qatar.

He added: The Persian Gulf Cooperation Council has become a place where these huge events have occurred in the past year, and if it continues, the international consequences for the world economy will continue to be negative.

What is the situation on the ground in Yemen?

Yemeni government forces are currently engaged in a major counter-offensive operation called "Yemen Dawn" to retake coastal territories seized by the Houthis in recent weeks near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital maritime trade stop.

In this week's meeting, Saudi Arabia's cabinet, under the leadership of Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of this country, pledged that "it will not allow the security or freedom of navigation of this country to be threatened in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab strait."

On Wednesday, Yemeni government forces announced that they had conducted 2,309 "targeting operations" against the Houthis as part of the "Yemen Dawn" military operation.

Majid Al-Nazili, the spokesman of these forces, said: This operation was carried out using warplanes, drones, artillery and rocket launchers, and 460 military vehicles of the Houthis were destroyed.

Government forces say they have recaptured areas in Sabr Al-Mawam and Al-Sarari in Taiz province and repelled a major Houthi offensive west of the southwestern Yemeni city of Taiz, which was besieged by Houthi fighters earlier this month. Taiz province includes the flat and western coastal region in the Red Sea, which includes the port city of Moka and Bab al-Mandeb. Most of the province is located in the highlands of Yemen, while its capital, Taiz, is located between the mountains.

Al-Jazeera's Mawry said the war in the area has been intense because of its strategic value. "Whoever controls the height and gains control of it, the mountains control the landscape. They control the shores of the Red Sea and even the city of Taiz.

Yemen's internationally recognized government is calling for more reinforcements as well as Saudi airstrikes on positions recently captured by the Houthis, mainly in the al-Masrukh region south of Taiz and the Torba region, which are gateways to Taiz city.

Mawry reported that while the Saudi-led coalition's airstrikes are forcing the Houthis to withdraw and retreat, allowing government forces to advance, they have not been able to fully dominate some of these positions.

After that, another anti-military attack is carried out by the Ansarullah group to retake the area. And that's the kind of routine we've been seeing since early September."

The siege of the Houthis in Taiz has led to civilian casualties and a severe shortage of fuel, gas and other resources. On Wednesday, the UN's World Food Program (WFP) reported that stocks of wheat flour were nearly exhausted.

The Red Cross said front-line hospitals in areas including Marib, Taiz and Yemen's Red Sea coast were registering an unprecedented number of patients wounded by weapons, with some centers admitting more than 700 victims in one week.