Twenty-four hours of Iran’s total war in Yemen, Iraq and Syria

Iran is supporting its Houthi rebel allies and proxy in Yemen to conduct an increasing war against Saudi Arabia, the Saudi-led Coalition, and also against Yemen government forces in Marib. Twenty four hours have seen an increased offensive against Marib in Yemen, a reported ballistic missile attack on Saudi Arabia on Saturday night and an attack on a ship in the Gulf of Oman. It is part of a series of tensions across the region linking Iran to conflicts in numerous places. This could be seen as a kind of “total war” that Iran is pushing across the Middle East.   

The volume of attacks and the multi-layered nature of them illustrate that this is not a mere happenstance or coincidence. This is not local politics. This is a regional conflict and Iran, which has a foothold in Yemen that has grown since 2015, is seeking to show that it can mobilize on numerous levels through proxies and through its own actions, as well as its advanced technology.   

The level of attacks in Yemen also must be paired with rocket attacks in Saudi Arabia and also the airstrikes carried out by the Biden administration over the weekend against Iranian-backed militias in Syria. Add it up and what do you get: Incidents in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, spanning thousands of kilometers.   

The attack on Saudi Arabia on Saturday included video of an interception over the skies of Riyadh. This is not the first time that rockets have been fired on Riyadh. Houthis have fired missiles before that triggered Patriot air defenses in Riyadh, in March 2020, in December 2017, in March 2018. In November 2017 Defense News said that Patriots had intercepted over 100 ballistic missiles since 2015 that were fired from Yemen. READ MORE