Missiles, drones and smuggled weapons: How the Houthis keep striking back

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - This screen grab taken from CCTV footage played on a screen during a press conference by the Saudi-led coalition in Riyadh on October 15, 2026, and made available via AFPTV, shows what the coalition says was a Houthi attack on Abha International Airport on October 7, 2026. — AFP pic

PARIS, Oct 16 — Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have built up a missile and drone arsenal capable of launching varied and sustained strikes, as Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government it backs are finding out.

‘Tit for tat’ strategy 

Since early September, the Houthis have struck key oil infrastructure and airports across Saudi Arabia, notably Riyadh’s airport, which has been targeted 20 times.

They have also unsuccessfully targeted the cities of Medina and Mecca.

The trigger for their return to hostilities, after a four-year truce, was a Saudi bombardment of the airport in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, in July to prevent a Houthi delegation from landing there.

Since then, there have been “tit-for-tat” military strikes, said April Longley Alley, a specialist on Yemen at the Washington Institute think tank.

“The Houthis framed this campaign as blockade for blockade, airport for airport, escalation for escalation,” she said.

Varied arsenal 

The Houthis possess a wide range of ballistic missiles and drones, which they are also using to strike targets in the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea.

The group’s missile stocks partly come from arsenals seized when it took Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014, as well as “whole systems smuggled in, or self-manufactured systems built from parts that were themselves smuggled into Yemen, primarily via the Arabian Sea”, explained Niranjan BS, a strategic weapons analyst at Jane’s, the open-source intelligence company.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance database, the Houthis have several types of medium-range missiles, some derived from Iranian models such as the Kheibar Shekan.

They also have short-range missiles, including the Asef anti-ship missile, derived from Iran’s Khalij Fars class of missile, noted the Wilson Center think tank.

In addition, the Houthis have a range of cruise missiles from Iran’s Quds missile family, with the Version 4 believed to have a range of 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles), according to the Wilson Center.

They also have a range of aerial and maritime drones, at least some of which are derived from Iranian models.

The Waeid-1 and Waeid-2 aerial drones, for example, are “local copies of the Iranian Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 one-way attack UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) respectively”, Niranjan said.

Iran’s support 

Supporters of the Houthi authorities brandish their weapons during a protest against Saudi intervention in Yemen, in Sanaa, on October 9, 2026. — AFP pic

“Iran has provided critical military assistance to the Houthis, particularly with the delivery of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems,” the Middle East Institute said in a report.

“Missile and UAV parts are designed and manufactured in Iran and smuggled into Yemen via small boats, container ships, or over the Oman-Yemen border, where they are assembled,” it said.

However, Danny Citrinowicz, an Israeli analyst specialising in Iran, cautioned that the Houthis “see themselves as partners of Iran, not proxies. This is why when people are saying Iran instructed the Houthis, it’s not working like that”.

“The Iranians have a strong presence in Yemen,” established by the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, he said at a recent conference in Paris.

But those operatives only advise; they do not decide Houthi operations, he said.

In June 2024, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on a man in China suspected of links to the Houthis, who it said played “a key role in procuring materials that enable Houthi forces to manufacture advanced conventional weapons inside Yemen”.

Able to endure 

The Houthis, who are fighting the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, seized the coastline along a crucial trade route during a lightning offensive last month, extending their control over all of Yemen's Red Sea coast. Yemeni government forces have been attempting for several days to retake coastal territory captured by the pro-Iranian fighters. — AFP pic

Having already weathered years of conflict, the Houthis are seen as capable of using their arsenal for a long time to come.

“We need to remember with the Houthis that they have withstood punishing air campaigns before, from the Saudis, from the Americans, and from the Israelis,” said Longley Alley of the Washington Institute.

“This is a battle-hardened group, and they have much less to lose than the Saudis.”

She added that “the Houthis are probably calculating that they can go longer because they’re used to absorbing these strikes”. — AFP