The latest clashes follow a week-long Houthi offensive that culminated in the group capturing Yemen’s Red Sea coast, cementing their hold on the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Yemen’s Houthis said Sunday that Saudi Arabia had launched more than 50 strikes against their positions in 24 hours, after the Iran-backed group claimed a rare drone and missile attack on a military base in the kingdom.
The Houthis have been engaged in renewed fighting with Saudi-backed government forces since Yemen’s civil war reignited in July, when the group declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia and began targeting its ships in the Red Sea.
The latest clashes follow a week-long Houthi offensive that culminated in the group capturing Yemen’s Red Sea coast, cementing their hold on the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
The waterway is a vital artery for Saudi oil exports as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed amid the US-Iran war.
Yayha Saree, the group’s military spokesman, said “the criminal Saudi enemy has carried out 58 airstrikes in the past 24 hours” in a post on Telegram.
The Houthis carried out their heaviest missile and drone attack in years this week against Saudi Arabia, setting oil sites ablaze and wounding 73.
The group’s Almasirah TV channel reported on Sunday that “Saudi aviation carried out two strikes” on Saada, a stronghold for the group.
It also reported artillery fire in the border district of Monabbih, in the same province.
Later on Sunday, Almasirah reported two Saudi strikes on a market in the northern Al-Jawf province.
The Houthis have reported more than 100 strikes against their positions since Tuesday, with no confirmation from Riyadh so far.
Up to now, the strikes have mainly focused on the front lines, in support of Yemeni government forces, without targeting the Houthis’ heart of power, including the capital Sanaa.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital and forced out the internationally recognised government.
They then fought a Saudi-led coalition from 2015 until a UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022. The conflict had since been dormant before it roared back to life in July.
Tens of thousands displaced
Riyadh says little about the Houthi strikes on its territory, but issues brief alerts almost daily warning of potential attacks in southern regions near Yemen.
On Sunday, the Saudi civil defence agency sent alerts for the city of Abha and the region around Khamis Mushait, and again quickly lifted them.
Earlier in the day, the Houthis said they used drones and missiles to attack the Sharurah military base in southern Saudi Arabia.
The attack targeted “weapons depots and command and control centres that are managing the aggression against our nation and people”, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on X.
Late on Saturday, the Saudi civil defence agency had said two people were injured after a projectile fired by the Houthis fell in the Jizan region, which also lies along the border.
The fighting in Yemen in recent weeks has displaced nearly 86,000 people, a UN agency said on Sunday, with the number surging by 10,000 from a day earlier.
The International Organization for Migration added that some of those displaced have begun fleeing Yemen altogether, saying that more than 2,000 people had reached Djibouti.
Yemen’s civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.
The renewed hostilities kicked off in July when the Houthis let an Iranian plane land in defiance of Saudi control of Yemeni airspace.
The government retaliated by striking Sanaa airport, an attack the Houthis blamed on Saudi Arabia.
Yemen is the latest country to be drawn into the broader Middle East war, which began with US-Israeli strikes against Iran in late February.
US news site Axios reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman twice called US President Donald Trump to request strikes on the Houthis last week, but that the request was rejected.
