Who are the Houthis, and why are they so hard to fight?

What the report says

BBC World News says the latest flare-up involving Yemen’s Houthi movement has put pressure on Saudi Arabia after attacks on airports and energy facilities in the kingdom. The report says Saudi Arabia’s energy minister pledged a response after strikes that the Houthis said they carried out, including missile attacks on Riyadh and assaults on oil sites and Dammam airport. The article also says the Riyadh airport strikes killed at least 14 people and injured more than 300.

The piece uses the attacks to explain who the Houthis are and why they have proved difficult to defeat. According to the BBC’s security correspondent, Frank Gardner, the group’s combination of precision strikes and guerrilla-style tactics has complicated Saudi military efforts to gain the upper hand. The Houthis said their attacks were retaliation for what they described as Saudi aggression in areas they control in western Yemen.

The conflict matters because it shows how the Yemen war has spilled across borders and threatened critical civilian and energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. The BBC frames the Houthis as an Iran-backed movement with the ability to hit distant targets, underscoring why regional powers continue to struggle to contain them. More broadly, the report fits into the wider Saudi-led war in Yemen, though the article focuses mainly on the group’s military methods and the immediate attacks.