Fighting escalates in Yemen; Houthi attacks trigger alerts in Saudi Arabia 

Fighting has escalated across Yemen, with the country’s internationally recognised government claiming the Houthis killed three children in an artillery attack, while Saudi Arabia accused the Iran-backed group of continuing to target the kingdom’s infrastructure.

The claims came as warnings of impending attacks sounded in several Saudi provinces early on Thursday, with the Houthis promising to respond after accusing Riyadh of launching 54 airstrikes over a 12-hour span.

The renewed hostilities between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government forces are unfolding amid intensifying regional tensions set off by the United States and Israel’s war on Iran. Pakistan warned on Tuesday that continued Houthi attacks could trigger the recently signed Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, a mutual security pact involving Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan.

Iran, meanwhile, has rejected criticism from the Arab League that it is interfering in Yemen, insisting that the Houthis act independently.

According to the World Health Organization, the clashes have killed or wounded more than 1,000 people since August 24 and displaced tens of thousands.

On Wednesday, the government-run Saba news reported that at least three children, including an infant, were killed in Houthi shelling in the central Marib governorate. Six others were also wounded in the attack, which Saba said was the second of its kind in 48 hours. The first assault killed two children and wounded 15 others, it said.

The Houthis, for their part, said the death toll from an attack on a prison in the northern al-Jawf governorate had climbed to at least 32 people. Some seven others were wounded in the attack on Tuesday, they said.

War in Yemen

Yemen has been mired in conflict since 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa. The attack prompted a Saudi-led military intervention the following year and a devastating conflict that killed an estimated 150,000 people.

A United Nations-brokered truce in 2022 brought a halt to large-scale fighting, but clashes resumed again in July following a strike on the Houthi-held Sanaa airport. The Houthis last week launched a major offensive in Hodeidah and Taiz provinces aimed at advancing towards the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a critical maritime waterway for Saudi oil exports. That offensive prompted government-aligned forces to mount counterattacks and expand operations elsewhere in the country, including in the al-Jawf governorate, considered a gateway to Sanaa.

The fighting has also spilled over into Saudi Arabia.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Major General Turki al-Maliki, said on Wednesday the Houthis were “persisting” in attacks on the kingdom’s assets and infrastructure, adding that the rebels had targeted Khamis Mushait, Abha, and Jazan using ballistic missiles and drones.

He promised that the coalition would respond to what he called the Houthis’s “heinous attacks”.

Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense authority also issued multiple alerts for Khamis Mushait and Abha early on Thursday, after issuing similar warnings for the same areas on Wednesday.

No casualties were reported in connection with those alerts.

The attacks on Wednesday came as the Houthis promised to respond to Saudi airstrikes.

In a statement on social media, Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, said Saudi forces had launched 54 airstrikes across six provinces over 12 hours on Wednesday, targeting al-Jawf, Marib, Taiz, Hodeidah, Saada and al-Bayda. He did not say whether the strikes had caused casualties, but said the aircraft involved had taken off from King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait and King Fahd Air Base in Taif.

“These airstrikes and the ongoing aggression against our country will not go unanswered and unpunished, by the will and power of God,” Saree said.

Saree had on Tuesday claimed that Saudi forces had carried out 121 airstrikes on Houthi-controlled territory in the preceding days, including a strike on the prison in al-Hazm, in al-Jawf. The Houthis said they retaliated with attacks on Aramco facilities in Abha, Najran, and Jizan, as well as on the Economic City and Khamis Mushait Air Base.

Saudi officials said on Tuesday that Houthi attacks had wounded at least 73 people.

Regional tensions

Separately on Wednesday, Yemeni government-aligned forces said that they had continued advancing in al-Jawf for a third consecutive day, reaching the vicinity of Bir al-Maraziq and claiming to have severed Houthi supply lines in the area.

The forces also said they had carried out attacks on Houthi positions in Taiz, and that additional reinforcements had been sent on Wednesday to bolster the anti-Houthi National Resistance forces along Yemen’s western coast. Those claims could not be independently confirmed.

Pakistani officials reiterated this week that any attack on Saudi Arabia could activate the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, which Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed last month to strengthen collective deterrence against future attacks.

“If there is unprovoked aggression, or a spillover of whatever is happening in Yemen into Saudi Arabia, definitely the Mecca agreement will become operational,” Pakistan’s defence minister told local media.

Iran, for its part, sharply criticised a statement issued earlier this week by Arab League foreign ministers, who condemned what they called “Iranian violations of Yemen’s sovereignty” and called on Tehran to halt any activity that threatened Yemen’s territorial integrity or airspace.

In response, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “completely rejects the claims regarding Iran’s interference in the affairs of Yemen,” adding that it had “consistently emphasised the need to preserve Yemen’s unity and territorial integrity” and had supported Yemeni-led dialogue based on a UN-backed roadmap.