Saudi authorities apparently turned off Saudi Arabia’s emergency mobile phone alert system last week – not because Houthi attacks had subsided – but because, amid complaints that mobile alerts were disrupting residents’ sleep, they hoped to return a sense of normalcy to the kingdom. They did not succeed. Tennis star Novak Djokovic will no longer be playing in Saudi Arabia this month; Saudi Aramco headquarters was on fire Wednesday; and flights to Riyadh have been canceled after a succession of Houthi missile attacks this week, the most shocking – at least to the visitors and investors the Saudi government hopes to attract – a strike Saturday on Riyadh’s international airport that killed 13 and wounded hundreds.
These attacks on civilian infrastructure are the latest war crimes in a conflict replete with criminality and civilian suffering, but also a jarring demonstration of the destruction that the Houthis are willing and able to inflict on their neighbor to the north. And Riyadh’s decision to turn off air raid alerts suggests they’ll be suing for peace sooner rather than later. Here’s what you need to know: