The Current Affairs Digest · ages 15+ · 2026-10-16
Houthis Hit Aramco Site Again as Saudi Arabia Postpones Sport and Summit
Riyadh’s airport stays shut as Yemen’s war reaches Saudi oil, flights and fixtures.
Yemen’s war is spilling into Saudi Arabia. The Houthis, a Yemeni armed group, are fighting Yemen’s government, which a Saudi-led coalition supports. On Wednesday 14 October the Houthis said they struck Aramco in Dhahran. A Saudi Ministry of Energy official confirmed an Aramco building was hit, causing a “limited fire” and no casualties. On Thursday, Saudi-backed forces said they intercepted a drone headed for Medina and a missile fired toward Riyadh.
The airport attacks of the weekend reportedly killed 14 people and wounded more than 300; Abha airport in the south was also hit, killing two. Saudi Arabia accused the Houthis over the Saturday 10 October attack, the third on Riyadh’s airport that week; Al Jazeera called it the deadliest attack on the kingdom in more than a decade. UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned it, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said an American was killed. Riyadh’s airport was expected to stay shut until at least Saturday. The Saudi Pro League moved three games, among them Al Ahli v Al Nassr, Cristiano Ronaldo’s team, to 6 March 2027. An EU–Gulf summit due on 24 October in Riyadh has been postponed, according to CBS News.
On the ground, Yemeni government forces launched a counteroffensive, “Dawn of Yemen”, to retake coastal land near the Bab al-Mandeb strait that the Houthis seized in recent weeks. The Red Cross says front-line hospitals in Marib, Taiz and on the Red Sea coast admitted more than 700 casualties in one week, and the World Food Programme says fighting is cutting food aid to about 800,000 people. Casualty figures from the fighting are claims by the parties and are not independently verified. The Houthis are backed by Iran, according to Al Jazeera.
Why it matters
Saudi Arabia has leaned more on the Red Sea route since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in March, so attacks near Bab al-Mandeb threaten its exports as well as its cities.
THE RED SEA. Saudi Arabia and Yemen share the Red Sea’s eastern shore, opposite Africa.