Note: our interactive map shows where the events behind the Red Sea Brief and the Red Sea Legal Letter took place. Red Sea Futures’ proprietary agentic model assisted in the creation of this report.

Houthi Missiles Reach Riyadh and Dhahran

Houthi forces have continued to escalate operations against Saudi Arabia beyond Red Sea shipping, launching an attack on the capital that AFP called the most lethal strike inside the kingdom in over ten years. On October 10, a Houthi missile strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh killed 13 people and wounded over 300. A notice to airmen, the order that closes an airfield to flights, kept the airport shut until October 17. It reopened on October 18, but Air France, Oman Air and several Indian carriers kept Riyadh flights suspended until at least October 22, and Lufthansa until November 18.

The Saudi-led coalition ordered civilians away from the al-Sabaha fuel station in Sanaa and struck it on October 13. The Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, called Aramco sites and offices “a legitimate target,” and late that day a ballistic missile hit an office tower in Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters, damaging its top three floors, a company source told Reuters.