Yemen’s Houthi movement said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia had carried out more than 50 airstrikes against their positions within a 24-hour period, following the group’s rare drone and missile assault on a Saudi military base earlier in the week.
The Houthis have been engaged in renewed hostilities with Saudi-backed government forces since Yemen’s civil war reignited in July, when the Iran-backed group declared a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia and began targeting its vessels in the Red Sea.
The latest escalation follows a week-long Houthi offensive that culminated in the group seizing Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, consolidating their control over the strategically significant Bab al-Mandab Strait.
The waterway serves as a critical corridor for Saudi oil exports at a time when the Strait of Hormuz remains closed due to the ongoing US-Iran conflict.
Yahya Saree, the Houthis’ military spokesman, stated that “the Saudi enemy has carried out 58 airstrikes in the past 24 hours” in a post on Telegram.
The Houthis launched their heaviest missile and drone offensive in years against Saudi Arabia this week, setting oil installations ablaze and injuring at least 73 people.
The group’s Almasirah TV channel reported on Sunday that “Saudi aviation carried out two airstrikes” on Saada, a key stronghold of the Houthi movement.
Artillery fire was also reported in the border district of Monabbih, located in the same province.
Later on Sunday, Almasirah reported two Saudi airstrikes targeting a market in the northern Al-Jawf province.
The Houthis have reported more than 100 strikes against their positions since Tuesday, though Riyadh has not yet confirmed any of them.
Thus far, the airstrikes have primarily targeted front-line areas in support of Yemeni government forces, without striking the Houthis’ core strongholds, including the capital, Sanaa.
Yemen’s civil war erupted in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital and forced the internationally recognized government into exile.
The group then fought a Saudi-led coalition from 2015 until a UN-brokered ceasefire took effect in 2022. The conflict had remained largely dormant before reigniting in July.
– Tens of Thousands Displaced –
Riyadh provides little information about the Houthi strikes on its territory but issues near-daily alerts warning of potential attacks in southern regions close to the Yemeni border.
On Sunday, the Saudi civil defense agency issued alerts for the city of Abha and the surrounding region of Khamis Mushait, lifting them shortly thereafter.
Earlier in the day, the Houthis said they had used drones and missiles to attack the Sharurah military base in southern Saudi Arabia.
The attack targeted “weapons depots and command and control centers that are managing the aggression against our nation and people,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on X.
Late on Saturday, the Saudi civil defense agency said two people were injured after a projectile fired by the Houthis landed in the Jizan region, also situated along the border.
The fighting in Yemen in recent weeks has displaced nearly 86,000 people, according to a UN agency statement released on Sunday, with the number increasing by 10,000 within a single day.
The International Organization for Migration added that some of those displaced have begun fleeing Yemen entirely, saying more than 2,000 people had reached Djibouti.
Yemen’s civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and precipitated a major humanitarian crisis.
The renewed hostilities were triggered in July when the Houthis permitted an Iranian plane to land in defiance of Saudi control over Yemeni airspace.
The government retaliated by striking Sanaa airport, an attack the Houthis attributed to Saudi Arabia.
Yemen has become the latest country drawn into the broader Middle East conflict, which began with US-Israeli strikes against Iran in late February.
According to the US news site Axios, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman twice contacted US President Donald Trump last week to request strikes against the Houthis, but the request was rebuffed.
