The Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said drone and missile attacks targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. The same statement said the Aramco refinery in Rabigh was also hit, along with military installations and smaller airports in the country’s south. According to Middle East Eye, the group targeted King Khalid International Airport for the second time on Monday. The Houthis declared Saudi airspace an open theatre for their operations, except the holy airspaces of Makkah and Madinah. UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern over the “strong escalation” of the fighting in Yemen and condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi territory, according to AFP.
Yemeni pro-government forces backed by Saudi Arabia say they have secured the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the start of a major offensive against the Houthis, according to the BBC. A Yemeni military spokesman said the Giants Brigades and National Shield forces are besieging Houthi fighters in Dhubab, a Red Sea coastal town, after taking its airport and cutting the road to the port city of Mokha. Houthi-run media denied that government forces had advanced in the Dhubab area. The Saudi-led military coalition said its fighter jets destroyed more than 300 high-value targets in strikes supporting the offensive, according to the BBC.
The coordination center for humanitarian operations controlled by the Houthis called on airlines to avoid Saudi Arabia’s airspace, according to TASS, citing the Houthi-controlled SABA agency. The same center said the kingdom’s airspace “will become a theater of military operations” for the rebel forces. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued an advisory to airlines to avoid Saudi airspace, according to Reuters, following a recent increase in Houthi attacks.
The spokesperson for Yemen's government-aligned forces says 1,122 attacks were carried out against Houthi targets, according to Middle East Eye. The same spokesperson claims around 1,747 Houthi fighters were killed, according to Middle East Eye.
Smoke rose from a foam factory in Yemen's Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, after a strike that the Houthi-run broadcaster Al Masirah attributed to Saudi Arabia, according to Middle East Eye. Yemen's Saudi-backed government forces said they carried out strikes on Houthi targets in Sanaa and elsewhere on Sunday, according to Middle East Eye.
The Houthis cut a vital supply route linking Taiz with Aden, the interim capital of the Saudi-backed government, according to Middle East Eye. Three Yemeni military sources confirmed Houthi control over the area and the route, with the group effectively encircling Taiz city.
Blasts were heard in Sanaa, and the Houthis blamed the attacks on Saudi Arabia, according to France24. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed four drones launched by the Houthis toward Khamis Mushait, in southern Saudi Arabia, as well as two ballistic missiles, according to Israel National News.
Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces are planning a major counteroffensive against the Houthi Ansar Allah movement, but the United States is not yet prepared to participate, according to TASS.
Washington has rebuffed, for the second time in recent weeks, the Saudi request to join the operation and conduct airstrikes against Houthi positions, and had provided Riyadh with more than 200 Houthi targets to strike, TASS reported.
President Trump's top cabinet members huddled for hours at Camp David on Friday to discuss next steps in the Iran war and the Saudi-Houthi conflict in Yemen, according to three U.S. officials who spoke to Axios. Vice President JD Vance chaired the meeting, which included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA director John Ratcliffe and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. The meeting was not announced by the Trump administration.
The Saudi-led coalition accused the Houthis of striking the Taibah electricity distribution station with a drone, which provides power to the Prophet’s Mosque, in Medina, according to Euronews. A senior Houthi official again rejected allegations that the movement had targeted Islamic holy sites, calling them a “lie”. Turkey condemned the alleged attack and voiced support for Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is planning an offensive against the Houthis in Yemen, with options including a coastal push to secure the Red Sea shipping route, according to Reuters, in a text published by Al-Monitor. The operation would be led on the ground by Yemeni forces overseen by Riyadh and supported by Saudi air strikes, according to six people with knowledge of the preparations. The central goal is to reverse the Houthis’ rapid gains last month, when they advanced down the coast and seized control of the Bab el-Mandeb strait. More than 100,000 Yemeni troops could be mobilized, depending on the scale of the offensive.
Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti, Saleh bin Fawzan Al-Fawzan, gave the war against Yemen’s Houthis an explicit religious framing: he addressed troops on the front line telling them to be ready to sacrifice their lives, citing Quranic verses and sayings of the prophet Muhammad on sacrifice, and prayed for the group’s “complete defeat,” Ynet News reports, which also notes that Saudi state television aired footage of what authorities described as a Houthi attack on a mosque in the kingdom’s south. Riyadh accuses the group of attempting to strike Mecca, and the Houthis reject the accusation.
The chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, called on Yemenis on Friday, 25 September 2026, to mobilize and join the armed forces against the Houthis, according to Al Arabiya English. He also offered a future general amnesty to Houthi fighters and affiliates who leave the group starting 26 September, according to Arab News.
Yemen’s Houthis sent a letter to the European Union (EU) foreign policy arm saying they have no intention of targeting European vessels in the Red Sea, Middle East Eye reports, citing the Financial Times. The letter followed the group’s capture of the port city of Mocha and the Yemeni side of the Bab al-Mandeb strait; the Houthis say their blockade applies only to Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s internationally recognized government, according to Middle East Eye.
The United Nations (UN) condemned the continued cross-border attacks by Houthi forces against Saudi Arabia, including an attempt to strike Riyadh, as well as attacks on civilians and energy infrastructure in the kingdom, according to spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, cited by UN News. Members of the UN Security Council condemned the ongoing Houthi attacks, including strikes that damaged civilians and energy infrastructure, and expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia and support for its right to self-defence, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Saleh bin Fawzan Al-Fawzan, called on the kingdom’s soldiers to be ready to lay down their lives fighting the Iran-backed Houthis until the group is ousted from power, Al-Monitor reported, citing Reuters. The statement came after weeks of escalation, with Houthi missile and drone salvos against Saudi Arabia and Saudi retaliation with airstrikes.
Saudi Arabia is meeting military chiefs from Pakistan and Türkiye to discuss options under the Mecca pact, as France confirmed it is sending soldiers, radars and defense systems to guard the Yanbu oil terminal, according to Al Jazeera. The Houthis launched an offensive along the Red Sea coast this month, amid the U.S.-led war against Iran, with fighting spreading across Yemen, according to The Washington Post.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday, September 25, 2026, the deployment of soldiers, radar and air defense systems to protect the Yanbu terminal, in Saudi Arabia, after Houthi attacks on the East–West pipeline terminal on the Red Sea. According to the broadcaster, the mission is described as strictly defensive, with no direct combat against the Houthis.
The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted six Houthi ballistic missiles on Thursday, 24 September 2026, thwarting attacks on Taif and Yanbu, after warnings were issued for several regions of the kingdom, including Mecca. French President Emmanuel Macron said France planned to send “military assets, meaning soldiers, radars and defence systems to protect” the Red Sea oil terminal of Yanbu.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, branded Yemen’s Houthis a “terrorist militia” and condemned the attempt to target Mecca, describing it as a “heinous crime” and “a provocation to Muslims around the world”, according to Al Jazeera and Dawn, which published the report by the French news agency AFP. He spoke at a cabinet meeting in Jeddah, recorded by the Saudi Press Agency, the kingdom’s official news agency: a rare intervention by the 90-year-old monarch, who has left day-to-day affairs to his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia says it intercepted a Houthi drone headed for Mecca on 15 September 2026, which Al Jazeera records as the first time a security alert had been activated in the city in nearly 10 years. Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi denied the attack and called the Saudi accusation “a heinous lie”. Since then, Houthi missiles and drones have hit Saudi cities and energy infrastructure: the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a ballistic missile fired at Riyadh on 19 September 2026, sending a dark column of smoke from a fuel storage area at King Khalid International Airport.
Saudi air strikes on the Red Sea port of Mokha killed at least six people as Iran-backed Houthis press their offensive in Yemen, according to France 24, citing Reuters, the Associated Press and AFP. The episode comes the same day the spokesperson for the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Babar Baloch, said in Geneva that more than 130,000 people have already been displaced in Yemen and about 3,000 have fled to Djibouti since fighting resumed in early September, figures that could rise to 230,000 and 10,000 over the coming months, according to Middle East Eye.
The United Kingdom will send a Royal Air Force (RAF) Voyager tanker aircraft to provide “defensive” air-to-air refuelling to Saudi jets against Houthi attacks, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, saying he had agreed to a Saudi request for military support. The aircraft, based at the British base of Akrotiri in Cyprus, is expected to begin operating within days and the mission is “time limited”, according to BBC News, which reports it involves a single aircraft and that the support is limited to defending the country from drones and missiles rather than backing strikes on Yemen. Defence Minister Luke Pollard told Sky News, according to Middle East Eye, that the decision is about British “national security” and that “in dangerous times, good friends stand together”. Besides the Voyager, Saudi Arabia already hosts the Sky Sabre air defence system, and the Houthis have claimed drone and ballistic missile attacks on Riyadh and on energy sites on the Red Sea coast in recent days. The announcement came the same day the United Nations (UN) Refugee Agency (UNHCR) projected that around 230,000 displaced people in Yemen and another 10,000 refugees in Djibouti may need humanitarian assistance in the coming months, according to spokesperson Babar Baloch, cited by Middle East Eye.
Yemen’s government said on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, that government forces retook two villages and a hilltop position in Al-Wazi’yah district, west of Taiz, in a counteroffensive against the Houthis, according to Arab News. This month’s Houthi offensive is the largest since the United Nations (UN)-brokered truce of April 2022 and has displaced 112,000 people, UN agencies said, cited by the Middle East Eye, which warns that up to 230,000 could be displaced if fighting intensifies. The The Guardian reports that aircraft from the Saudi-led coalition struck Houthi positions, gatherings and weapons stores west of Taiz, according to Yemeni government forces.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday, September 21, 2026, that his talks with Donald Trump in New York were “very constructive” and that there was a willingness to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded during the war, according to the Hindustan Times. In the account he gave to reporters, “several solutions” were discussed that would allow, without a comprehensive deal, more container ships and tankers to move through the strait, along with the situation in the Red Sea, a route that has gained weight for oil shipments with Hormuz closed and where the seizure of a strategic strait by the Iran-backed Houthis has complicated navigation. On Ukraine, Macron said he pressed Trump to speed up the delivery of missile interceptors to Kyiv, “a defensive measure”, and said in a post on X that the two discussed the prospect of an “energy truce and a moratorium in the Black Sea”. Before the meeting, Trump had blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for part of the surge in diesel prices because of attacks on Russian refineries and called on him to stop hitting Russian diesel, according to Le Monde. Macron also met Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
A six-second clip presented as the moment a Houthi missile struck Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport circulated on social media from September 20, 2026, and it is generated by artificial intelligence, according to a fact check by Agence France-Presse published on September 22, 2026. A reverse image search led to a longer version of the video posted on March 19, 2026, by Yemeni politician Ali Hussein Al-Bujairi and labelled “manipulated media” by X itself; the fact check points to signs of synthetic origin, among them a man apparently walking through a glass door at the three-second mark and a mobile phone floating by another man’s ear at the eleven-second mark. There were no official reports of an attack on the airport: the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted the missile, and the fire on September 19, 2026, consumed a Saudi Aramco fuel tank at a depot next to the terminal, according to The Jakarta Post and the BBC. A fact check by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle on September 17, 2026, identified another clip, nine seconds long and with more than 340,000 views, presented as strikes on Abha and also generated by artificial intelligence, along with a video of an ambush that is in fact April 2024 footage with commentary from a 2018 football match spliced in; in both cases, the detection platform Hive Moderation flagged the imagery as synthetic. The Deutsche Welle fact check notes that the difficulty of observing the conflict independently leaves room for this kind of content, and a Misbar verification on September 21, 2026, examined the same Riyadh airport video.