Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent weeks have inflicted severe losses on the kingdom, with missiles hitting energy infrastructure and civilian airports, killing at least 20 people. The Iranian proxy group has struck the headquarters of Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company, and is fighting Saudi-backed government forces for control of Yemen's coastline on the Red Sea, a vital waterway for global energy supplies. The fighting has put further upward pressure on oil and gas prices as Iran and the U.S. fight over the nearby Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia, despite its size, wealth and a substantial military, has appeared to be on the back foot as it faces the Yemeni rebels. The kingdom's opaque government releases regular statements about Houthi ballistic missiles and drones being intercepted, including five it said were destroyed Wednesday. But many have got through, including an Oct. 10 strike that killed 13 people at Riyadh's King Khalid Airport, including a U.S. citizen.
"No country can ever have a 100% interception rating, that just doesn't really exist," Elizabeth Dent, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told CBS News, but that "was a hell of a one to miss." Saudi Arabia spent $83 billion on defense last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute — far more than any other country in the Middle East, including Israel. So why has the kingdom struggled to stop the Houthi barrage? Saudi Arabia is vast and, analysts say, geographically vulnerable.
Its east, home to the kingdom's oil fields, is bordered by the Persian Gulf — all that separates Saudi Arabia from longtime foe Iran. Early in the war, Iran launched strikes targeting bases used by the U.S. in Saudi Arabia in retaliation for U.S. attacks. To the north, across Saudi Arabia's long border with Iraq, are Iran-backed militia groups that the Saudis — along with the U.S. — struck in July in response to dozens of attempted drone attacks on the kingdom's infrastructure and on U.S. installations in the region.
To the south, Saudi Arabia shares a more-than-800-mile border with Yemen. A vast portion of the war-wracked nation is controlled by the Houthis. To Saudi Arabia's west, the Houthis have also been battling for control of the Red Sea's vital shipping lanes.
"Over the last eight months, they have been facing threats from every direction," said Dent. "There is a lot of critical infrastructure: multiple airports, many pipelines, as well as extensive oil production and export infrastructure, military bases, government buildings, royal palaces, and so on," said Thomas Juneau, associate fellow at the Chatham House think tank's Middle East and North Africa Program. "It is simply extremely difficult to provide air defenses for all these sites over such a large area." "If the Houthis are able to hit Saudi infrastructure with only a minority of their attempted drone or missile attacks, it counts as a success for them and an embarrassment and a loss for Saudi Arabia," Juneau told CBS News.
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