Yemen’s Houthis are attacking Saudi Arabia from Iraq, sources say

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi terror group attacked Saudi Arabia this week from Iraqi territory in coordination with Iraqi armed groups, according to assessments by Saudi Arabia and regional partners, reflecting growing coordination among Iran-aligned militias, two officials in the region say.

The assessments, which differ from official accounts, indicate that members of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance have deepened their ties and ability to inflict damage to US allies in the region despite years of US and Israeli strikes on them from Lebanon to Iran after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The attacks included strikes on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province, the kingdom’s main crude hub.

Saudi Arabia carried out joint airstrikes with the United States on Iraqi sites yesterday that it said were linked to the attacks, officially blaming Iraqi armed groups aligned with Iran. Yemen’s Houthis have said they carried out the attacks. Iraq has said it is investigating.

The officials in the region who say some of the attacks were carried out from Iraqi territory jointly by the Iraqi groups and the Houthis, add that it is under the supervision of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“There is now direct training and coordination between members of the Axis of Resistance themselves, not just between them and Iran,” says Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the Chatham House think tank’s Middle East and North Africa program.

The Saudi, Iranian and Iraqi governments do not respond to requests for comment, nor do the Houthis, who have said their attacks on Saudi Arabia are in response to Saudi attacks in Yemen and aim to break a “siege” imposed by the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has denied imposing a siege, noting the arrival of dozens of ships to Houthi-controlled ports this year.