Who Are the Houthis and Why Are They Attacking Saudi Arabian Airports?

Yemen's Houthi rebels have vowed to continue their attacks on Saudi Arabian airports and oil facilities.

The European Union and the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council announced on Thursday the postponement of a joint meeting that was supposed to be held in Saudi Arabia next week amid security concerns caused by Houthi attacks on the country's airports.

The council announced that the Gulf-Europe summit would be rescheduled, citing "continued efforts by terrorist Houthi militias to target the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its civilian infrastructure, which threatens the safety and security of innocent civilians."

The postponement comes after Yemen's Houthi rebels vowed on Wednesday to resume attacks on Saudi Arabia's airports and oil facilities, just hours after attacking the headquarters of Saudi oil giant Aramco.

Describing these places as "legitimate targets" and their attacks as a direct response to the Saudi attacks on Yemen, Yahya Saree, the spokesman of the Houthi army, said: "Operations will continue deep into Saudi Arabia in the coming days." Saudi-led forces said they had intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis at Riyadh on Wednesday, and local reporters reported hearing "loud explosions" in the Saudi capital.

The escalation follows weeks of fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed government of Yemen, which has shattered an unofficial four-year ceasefire in the country's civil war. The conflict has reignited amid the wider fallout from the US-Iranian war, bringing further instability to the Persian Gulf region. In September, the Houthis said they had captured the strategic island of Prim, located in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a vital maritime bottleneck. They also captured other islands to solidify their control of the Red Sea coastline. Amid fears that a stronger Houthi position along the coast could further limit global energy supplies, Saudi-backed forces retook key areas around the strait in early October. The Houthis have since increased their focus on Saudi Arabia's airports and energy infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy confirmed that Tuesday night's attack on Aramco's executive offices in the eastern city of Dhahran caused a limited fire. No injuries were reported. TIME has contacted Aramco and the Saudi Arabian government media office for more information. Saudi officials said several missiles and drones were intercepted elsewhere, and falling debris injured four people in the capital Riyadh. On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia attacked an oil warehouse in the suburbs of Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, while intensifying retaliatory attacks.

The Saudi attack on the oil depot seems to be in response to the Houthi attack on the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday, which left 13 dead and more than 300 injured. Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) confirmed that a projectile hit the same airport on Sunday, killing one person. Last week, an attack on Abha International Airport killed two people and wounded 28, GACA said.

Saudi Arabia is the world's top buyer of American weapons, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. However, the country is struggling to defend itself against the Houthis, who are in a position to strike deep into the kingdom. The Saudis are currently investigating how their defense systems failed to stop the deadly attacks. Experts mention the abundance of Saudi soil as one of the reasons for the failure of defense measures. Saudi Arabia's border with Yemen stretches for more than 800 miles. "Expecting a country the size of Saudi Arabia to intercept every missile is simply unrealistic. No defense can guarantee complete protection," Saudi analyst Ali Shahabi said in an online post.

Following these attacks, operations in Malik Khalid are still suspended. Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Philippine Airlines are among the companies that suspended their flights to Riyadh.

The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh has warned Americans in the country of "potential flight cancellations, airspace closures and travel disruptions" and states that U.S. government employees now need "special authorization" to use any airport in the country.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the Houthis were "behaving very badly". "I thought they learned their lesson a year ago when we bombed them and it stopped at their request," he continued in a Twitter social post, apparently referring to US strikes in March-April last year in response to Houthi attacks on ships in the region. Red Sea and global trade disruption Weeks after the strikes began, a ceasefire between the US and the Houthis was brokered by Oman.

Trump suggested on Saturday that the United States might join the Saudi offensive against the Houthis. In response to a question about the possibility of US attacks, a senior US official told TIME that Washington "is in continuous dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the government of the Republic of Yemen about the stability of the region, and we will always fulfill our commitments to our partners".

As tensions continue to escalate in the region, here's what we need to know about the Houthis, their history with Saudi Arabia and why they're attacking airports.

The Houthis are a political and armed group in Yemen that first emerged in the 1990s and have been fighting the country's internationally recognized government for about two decades. The group is a revivalist movement for Zaidism, a branch of Shiite Islam. The Zaidi Muslim population in this country constitutes about 35% of Yemen's population.

According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Houthi movement was largely born out of the evolution of the Faithful Youth Association (BYF). This group became known as the Houthis in honor of its founder and leader Hossein al-Houthi. Before he was killed by Yemeni forces in 2004, al-Houthi had transformed the group into a more militant movement. This group is now led by his brother Abdul Malik al-Houthi.

The civil war began in 2014 after the Houthis captured Sana'a, forcing the government to flee to the southern city of Aden. Since then, the group has been engaged in a war against the Saudi-led coalition supporting the Yemeni government. The Houthis currently control most of the western regions of the country, including Sana'a.

Experts compare the Houthis with autocratic regimes due to the social restrictions imposed in the areas controlled by this group and the alleged cases of human rights violations.

Mahmoud Shahrah, a Yemeni political analyst at London-based think tank Chatham House, said: "The Houthis are dominated by a Zaidi ISIS with very ideological and radical ideas. They also have similarities with the Taliban in terms of social control.

What is the relationship between the Houthi rebels and Iran?

The Houthis have strong relations with Iran and often act in line with Tehran's goals.

"Since 2009, Iran [since 2009] has started to accelerate the supply of arms, training, and also a lot of financial aid to the Houthis," says Fariya al-Moslami, a Yemeni researcher at Chatham House, noting that the relationship between the two began in the early 1990s.

The Houthis are often considered part of Iran's proxy network known as the "Axis of Resistance," which includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Islamic Resistance Network in Iraq, and formerly the Assad regime in Syria until its collapse in December 2024.

In response to the Israel-Hamas war, Yemeni militias launched several attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea that disrupted global trade in late 2023 and early 2024. The United States and Britain joined forces in January 2024 for a series of attacks on Houthi targets across Yemen in retaliation for attacks on unarmed ships. The United States launched another campaign against Houthi targets later that year.

In March, the Houthis entered the war with Iran by firing a volley of ballistic missiles towards the south of Israel. In the following months, this group's advances along the Red Sea are widely seen as serving Iran's interests. A Houthi blockade of the region against Saudi Arabia was declared in July and several ships were attacked. The threat that the Houthis could block another vital maritime stopover, just as Iran has done with the Strait of Hormuz, could give Tehran significant leverage in its negotiations with Washington.

However, experts say that it is not entirely accurate to consider the Houthis as direct representatives.

Fawaz Greggs, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, says: "The Houthis are one of Iran's more independent regional allies in the Middle East. They have their own independent interests, even if their interests converge at the regional and global level.

However, the Houthis have become more vital to Iran. Referring to the ability of the Houthis to disrupt trade in the Red Sea, Al-Moslami says: "With the fall of Assad, with the weakening of Hezbollah, the Houthis became Iran's most important regional ally."

The goals of the group have changed with the passage of time and with the unfolding of regional developments, experts note.

"The final goal of the Houthis is to become a regional power," says al-Moslami. Due to the flare-up of the civil war, the Houthis ultimately want an end to what they call the blockade of Saudi ports and airports in their territory.

Greggs says: "The Houthis want the skies and ports of the country to be open for trade, goods and services. They want money to flow into the coffers of the Houthis.

According to a United Nations report, the civil war has had a catastrophic impact on Yemen's population, with half of the population in Yemen's government-controlled areas facing high levels of acute food insecurity. Georges says: "The current situation is very dire for the population of Yemen, as well as for the ability of the Houthis to govern Yemen effectively.

He adds: "The Houthis want to consolidate the government and the regime. They want to be recognized as the legitimate government in Sana'a, not to be considered a non-state actor."

When did the Houthis and Saudi Arabia start the war again?

A UN-brokered ceasefire in April 2022 largely held for more than four years before collapsing in July. The Houthis claimed that Saudi Arabia carried out attacks on the Sana'a airport and targeted the delegation of the Houthis who were returning from Iran. In retaliation, the Houthi rebels launched ballistic missiles towards Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis saw this as a golden opportunity to change the balance, Georges says, to gain power against Saudi Arabia and Yemen itself and launch a lightning strike.

After more attacks on Houthi targets later that month, the militant group began attacking oil refineries in Saudi Arabia, owned by the state oil company Aramco.

In September, attacks on oil refineries and other related facilities increased, with Saudi Arabian airports becoming targets.

Why do the Houthis attack Saudi airports?

Before the 2022 ceasefire, attacks on airports were largely seen as a major Houthi operation.

In a highly publicized attack, the group attacked Abha International Airport in June 2019, injuring at least 26 people, Saudi officials said. This strike was met with international condemnation and Human Rights Watch considered it a possible war crime.