A black cloud over Riyadh, a fire near the main airport and an alarm siren that woke residents in the middle of the night. The Houthis in Yemen then announced that the attack was theirs - and that it was revenge.

The movement's spokesman, Yahya Saree, said a "large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones" had been used and that "sensitive targets" in Riyadh had been struck, along with facilities of the state oil company Aramco in Yanbu - an export port on the Red Sea. The Saudi authorities have still not said whether the claim is accurate, or what actually set the tank near the airport alight. Silence from the side with the most reason to speak.

What has been confirmed is enough. Black smoke rose over the city for hours, footage shows fire behind a fuel tank, and airport operations were disrupted by long delays and cancelled flights. Residents of Riyadh and nearby Al-Kharj received an air raid warning, and one 27-year-old described hearing a siren first and then feeling his windows shake. According to reports, this is the first time residents of the Saudi capital have received such a warning at this stage of the escalation.

The war nobody is counting

Saree says the operation was a response to Riyadh's attempts to strike Sanaa and that Saudi Arabia carried out around 300 air strikes on Yemen in a single week. The Saudi side neither confirms nor denies. On the same day, 48 people died in fighting between the Houthis and Yemeni government forces - 31 fighters according to the Houthis, 17 soldiers according to government sources. Not one of those figures has been independently verified, and that is the most accurate description of the entire Yemeni war: everyone counts, nobody confirms.

The Houthis, linked to Iran, control most of northern Yemen and have fought for years against the internationally recognised government backed by Riyadh. In recent weeks they have intensified attacks on Saudi cities, on energy infrastructure and on shipping in the Red Sea. They recently took the port town of Mocha and the island of Perim - exactly where Bab el-Mandeb narrows, one of the most important maritime passages for oil and goods in the world.

This is where the story stops being distant. After the disruptions to traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, part of Saudi exports were redirected precisely toward the Red Sea. Now that route is burning too. When both main exits for Gulf oil are under pressure at the same time, it stops being a question only for Riyadh and Sanaa - it becomes a question for every market that depends on deliveries from there.

The Balkans know this scene by heart: a conflict fought for years away from the cameras, remembered by the world only when it catches something burning that can be seen from a distance. How long does a war have to last before it stops being news - and what has to explode for it to become news again?