DA Editorial desk | Sara Debbarma
The Houthi missile strike on the presidential palace in Aden on 15 October killed five people and wounded 16. It was the first attack on the palace in the current phase of Yemen’s long war, and it would be alarming enough on its own. But it came alongside something worse. Saudi-led coalition figures say the Houthis have launched 20 attacks this month on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, killing 17 people and wounding 333, and that attacks on Abha airport killed three and wounded 28.
Civilian airports are not legitimate targets in any war. Passengers, baggage handlers and airline crews are not combatants, and the governing council of the International Civil Aviation Organization was right to condemn the attacks. The Houthis’ warning that Saudi airspace is unsafe, with Mecca and Medina excluded, turns ordinary travel into a gamble for millions of people, including pilgrims and migrant workers from Asia and Africa.
None of this is happening in isolation. The 2022 truce held for years until the regional war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February. Iran supplies the Houthis with weapons, money and training, according to the reporting, though Tehran denies it. With Hormuz under threat and Bab el-Mandeb now contested, the world’s two most sensitive oil chokepoints are both in play.
The responsibility is shared. The Houthis must stop attacking civilian infrastructure. Saudi Arabia and its allies must respond within the laws of war, because retaliation that kills civilians in Yemen will only widen the cycle. Iran has the leverage to restrain its partners and should use it. And outside powers that keep the region supplied with weapons should ask whether more arms buy any security at all. The Yemeni people have suffered for a decade. A truce that already worked once can be rebuilt, but not while airports are burning.