US warns fighting between Saudi Arabia, Houthis could “escalate rapidly”

The United States has warned that fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis could “escalate rapidly” after a missile attack targeted Riyadh for the first time since the Yemen conflict resumed, Yahoo News reports.

President Donald Trump cut short a weekend at Camp David to return unexpectedly to the White House, with no explanation given as explosions rang out Saturday near an Aramco fuel tank close to Riyadh’s airport.

“This military conflict has the potential to escalate rapidly,” the State Department warned, urging Americans outside the Middle East to reconsider travel to the region, while separately restricting government employee travel to the Saudi cities of Taif and Yanbu.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree claimed responsibility, saying fighters had launched missiles and drones at “sensitive sites” in Riyadh and Aramco facilities in Yanbu.

According to King’s College London’s Andreas Krieg, the Riyadh strike crossed “an important psychological threshold,” since repeated threats to the Saudi capital make “restraint politically and strategically much harder to sustain.”

With the Houthis’ offensive already displacing over 110,000 people and disrupting Saudi oil exports, the attack piles fresh pressure on a global economy already strained by seven months of war across the Middle East.