A long-range missile struck a passenger terminal at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Saturday, killing 13 people in the deadliest attack of its kind since March 2015. The strike on the Saudi capital triggered a dangerous new escalation in the ongoing war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, leaving passengers dazed amidst dust and rubble as parts of the building filled with flames and smoke.
US President Donald Trump said he would consider joining strikes on Houthi-controlled territory in retaliation for the incident, which the Saudi-led coalition described as a full-fledged war crime. However, administration advisers are carefully weighing whether to rush into a conflict with a group that has steadily expanded its military capabilities since joining the Israel-Hamas war in 2023 with rocket attacks on commercial shipping.
Advanced Missile Technology and Air Defense Failures
Once dismissed as “terrorists in flip-flops”, the Houthi movement now deploys highly sophisticated weaponry, including the Palestine-2 hypersonic missile. Capable of traveling at 16 times the speed of sound and possessing high accuracy, it remains unclear whether this specific munition was used in the airport attack, though experts say it was clearly a sophisticated missile.
Saudi Arabia has not disclosed why its air defense systems failed to intercept the incoming missile. According to Danny Citrinowicz—a former Israeli military intelligence commander and specialist at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies—while Riyadh successfully blocks a portion of incoming strikes, potential Iranian assistance in redesigning missiles or altering warheads could be making them tougher to shoot down.
“We don’t know what percentage of missiles Saudi Arabia is intercepting, but clearly some are hitting their targets,” Citrinowicz said. “We have had reports of the Iranians sharing expertise with the Houthis based on their experiences of recent wars with the US and Israel. Maybe they have changed something in the missile to make it harder to intercept.”
Regional Strategy and US Strategic Constraints
A central dilemma for Washington is the operational readiness of American forces. Back in August, three different sources informed Reuters that America’s inventory of long-range missiles had been practically exhausted by the conflict with Iran. Air defense concerns remain paramount, as a major offensive against the Houthis could provoke retaliatory strikes against American personnel and bases in Jordan or the United Arab Emirates.
This follows the fallout from Trump’s decision earlier this year to launch a war on Iran, the Houthis’ most powerful regional ally. When Trump struck the Islamic Republic in February, Tehran responded by sealing off the strategic Strait of Hormuz shipping route. The resulting disruption has driven up energy prices, weighing on the president’s approval ratings ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
Bridget Toomey, an expert on the Houthis at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, noted that Washington cannot treat the militia as an isolated actor. “Yemen is not a separate conflict; the Houthis are part of Iran’s regional strategy and Washington cannot ignore that,” she said, linking the group to a network that includes Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Despite calls for a decisive response, Citrinowicz suggested the administration is likely to proceed with caution due to the risk of an open-ended entanglement. “For Trump, it is difficult for him to decide whether or not to get in, because if you get in, you may not know how to get out,” he said. “I sense that Trump is very reluctant to start a war with the Houthis. I suspect a couple of people in Washington will be thinking it’s better to interact with the Houthis rather than start an all-out war … if they did enter [the fray] it would be a very symbolic thing,” he said.
