ROME — An Italian F-2000 fighter jet was hit during overnight attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Ta’if air base, putting Italy directly in the path of a renewed regional security crisis stretching from the Arabian Peninsula to the Red Sea.
No Italian military personnel were involved, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said. The aircraft was stationed inside the base, in a decentralized area, and no other equipment or infrastructure used by Italian personnel was damaged.
- The incident comes as Rome is also weighing a more autonomous role in protecting Italian merchant shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait amid renewed Houthi threats in the Red Sea.
Why it matters: For Italy, the two fronts are increasingly connected. Italian military personnel deployed in Saudi Arabia and commercial interests crossing one of the world’s critical maritime corridors are now exposed to the same widening arc of instability.
- Crosetto said he personally monitored the situation overnight with Chief of Defense Gen. Luciano Portolano.
- Italian personnel at Ta’if are deployed as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.
- The minister has requested a fresh assessment of the security situation, conditions facing Italian personnel and possible operational options.
- Crosetto said existing measures to protect Italian military personnel had already been strengthened.
What’s happening: The Ta’if attack comes against a renewed confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis, with the two sides trading attacks as the security situation deteriorates around the Arabian Peninsula and Red Sea.
- Al Jazeera reported on Sept. 17 that five people had been killed amid the exchanges between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.
- The overnight attacks cited by Crosetto have now reached Ta’if, bringing the escalation into a base hosting Italian personnel and military assets.
- Crosetto said he had asked Portolano, Joint Operations Command chief Gen. Giovanni Maria Iannucci and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Antonio Conserva for a further assessment after reviews already conducted in recent weeks.
- The immediate priority, he said, remains “the full protection of our personnel” and operating with “the necessary responsibility.”
The Houthi offensive. The Ta’if incident comes amid a renewed Houthi offensive that is again putting pressure on Saudi Arabia and threatening maritime traffic in the Red Sea.
- Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis have traded attacks in recent days, while the renewed threat around Bab el-Mandeb is forcing governments — including Italy — to reassess how to protect both military personnel and commercial shipping.
Between the lines: The pressure on Italy is not confined to its military footprint in Saudi Arabia. Rome is simultaneously looking at how to protect Italian merchant vessels through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, once again threatened by Yemen’s Houthis.
- Crosetto has signaled that Italy may be prepared to move without waiting for the EU’s ASPIDES mission to determine when vessels can safely transit the area.
- “I decided, together with the Chief of Defense, not to wait for Aspides to establish whether ships can pass or not,” Crosetto said at the “Risorsa Mare” forum in La Spezia.
- “We will probably act so that Italian ships can start passing without waiting for European bureaucracy to add to our own,” he added, arguing that delays to shipping also mean delays and additional costs for the economy.
The big picture: The two developments put the Defense Ministry at the intersection of Italy’s military, maritime and economic interests across the wider Indo-Mediterranean space.
- At Ta’if, the immediate question is force protection and whether the changing security environment requires adjustments to Italy’s military posture.
- In the Red Sea, the question is increasingly operational: how far Rome is prepared to go on its own to keep Italian commercial traffic moving through Bab el-Mandeb.
What we’re watching: The assessment requested by Crosetto after the Ta’if attack will provide the first indication of whether Rome believes its existing security measures are sufficient — or whether the renewed regional escalation will require new operational steps.
