Houthi Strike Injures Six in Najran, Riyadh Tower Orders Remote Work as Saudi-Houthi Fighting Continues

Since the Oct. 10 Houthi strike on Riyadh's airport, the fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis has widened into daily exchanges, and Sunday, Oct. 18, brought more of them.

Saudi civil defense said a Houthi projectile hit a residential area of Najran, near the Yemen border. Six citizens were injured, and three homes and three vehicles were damaged.

The Houthis' Saba news agency said a Saudi airstrike in northern Yemen killed at least nine people and wounded 16. That figure comes from the Houthis. No independent confirmation has been reported.

Riyadh Adjusts

In the capital, the Kingdom Centre skyscraper ordered "mandatory" remote work for office tenants until further notice. No reason was given. The order followed a security alert and two drone interceptions around the city.

The Saudi-led coalition has also been running repeated air raids on Houthi-held territory. Riyadh calls its latest push alongside Yemeni partners "Yemen's Dawn."

The Saudi military said two pilots died in a helicopter crash in Najran and blamed a "technical malfunction." The Houthis claimed they shot down an Apache in the same area. Neither account has been independently verified.

The UAE Returns, Reportedly

The United Arab Emirates has agreed to resume payments to some southern Yemeni forces fighting the Houthis, according to sources in Yemen cited by The Guardian. In return, Saudi Arabia would provide air cover for those forces. Neither government has publicly responded to that account.

The forces in question, mainly the Giant Brigades, were trained and funded by the UAE. The UAE cut off that funding when it quit Yemen in January.

The rift behind that exit came after Saudi warplanes struck a UAE-linked shipment of military vehicles at Mukalla on Dec. 30. The Saudi strike targeted vehicles reportedly meant for Southern Transitional Council separatists.

The STC has demanded a referendum on secession this week, restoring the 1967-1990 borders. Neither Riyadh nor Abu Dhabi has answered. The STC has also not agreed to send its troops to fight outside the old southern borders.

On the ground, Yemen's UN-recognized government declared a counteroffensive to retake Sanaa. The Guardian reports it has had limited success around Majzar near Marib and near the Bab al-Mandab strait.

Iran's Mediation Offer Rejected

Yemen's foreign minister rejected Iran's offer to mediate. "When Iran's foreign minister and his officials offer 'mediation' in Yemen, they are offering to mediate a war ignited by the coup of the Houthi terrorist militia with their regime's backing," she said.

The offer comes as Iran says the Strait of Hormuz is reopening and that conditions for a seven-day ceasefire in its own war with the U.S. remain on the table. Nothing in that track has yet reached the Yemen front.

The Houthis have said they will keep attacking Saudi airports and oil facilities. A missile strike on the Aramco headquarters in Dhahran damaged a building there, sources told Reuters.

Trump has said Israel has been assisting Saudi Arabia against the Houthis. He has also suggested the kingdom may be closer than ever to joining the Abraham Accords. Neither Riyadh nor Jerusalem has confirmed the first claim in the accounts reviewed.

Crown Prince's Vision Under Strain

CNN reports that the escalation has pulled Saudi Arabia into the middle of the conflict it tried to avoid. Multi-front attacks on oil infrastructure have cut into exports, and major projects have been canceled.

Film festivals, award shows and concerts have been suspended this year. The kingdom's flagship financial conference, expected to draw top business leaders at the end of October, is coming under pressure as the strikes continue.

"They just needed the conflict to stay (as) far away from them as possible without the Houthis disrupting their transformation plans," Michael Ratney, the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told CNN. "Now they find themselves in the middle of it."

The Washington Post's assessment is that Saudis and Houthis both see fighting as the only path ahead, with no clear exit.

The Houthis are still determined to take Taiz and Marib, according to The Guardian. Those are the last two major cities outside the old southern borders still beyond their control.

It remains unclear whether the UAE-Saudi arrangement becomes a formal deal and whether Riyadh answers the separatists' referendum demand. Those answers will shape the anti-Houthi front before the investment conference at the end of the month.