Private military companies & proxies

Assessment

Houthi forces said on Sept 14 that they had fired dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at King Khalid airbase in Khamis Mushait, hitting hangars, radar, runways and ammunition depots, in declared retaliation for more than 300 Saudi air strikes across Yemen over five days; the claim followed a Sept 13 strike on Sharurah and the Sept 8 wave on Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran that wounded 73. Drones launched from Iraq's Maysan province struck Saudi Arabia's East-West crude pipeline on Sept 11, forcing the shutdown of the 4 to 5 million barrels a day route that had substituted for the Strait of Hormuz; Iraq seized the launch platform and dismissed the Maysan operations commander on Sept 13, and Riyadh held off retaliation at Baghdad's request. Kata'ib Hizballah and other Iraqi militias still refuse disarmament before the Sept 30 deadline. Russia's Africa Corps took its heaviest reported single loss of 2026 when five of its personnel were killed alongside more than 50 Malian soldiers in JNIM's Sept 11 assault on the Dioura camp, reported on Sept 14.