Yemen’s government announced a full-scale offensive against the Houthis on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera and CNN, with backing from the Saudi-led coalition. Loud explosions presumed to be airstrikes were heard over Sanaa, the Houthi-held capital, across the weekend.
The Houthis answered by claiming missile and drone strikes on Saudi Aramco facilities in Riyadh and near Khurais. Saudi Arabia has not confirmed any damage, and the claims remain unverified — but they fit a pattern that escalated last week, when the Saudi-led coalition accused the Houthis of a drone attack on a Medina power station that knocked one transformer out of service. The coalition had earlier accused the Houthis of targeting the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
The strategic question is whether Yemen becomes a sustained second front or a bargaining chip. A prolonged campaign pulls Saudi and coalition resources into ground operations while Houthi retaliation keeps Gulf energy infrastructure — refineries, export terminals, power stations — inside the threat envelope. That is a fundamentally different risk register than the Hormuz convoy problem: fixed assets can’t reroute.