Houthis carry out deadly attack in Yemen and hit Saudi territory
The Iran-backed militant group says ‘hundreds’ of troops have been killed and injured by drone and missile attacks
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[AMMAN] The Houthis conducted a “large-scale” attack against forces from Yemen’s Saudi-backed government, and struck the southwestern Saudi region of Najran, raising concerns over a widening of the US-Israeli war on Iran into a broader conflict.
The militant group, which is backed by Iran, said on Thursday (Aug 6) that drone and missile attacks in northern and eastern Yemen had killed and injured “hundreds” of troops, according to a statement on Telegram.
The Associated Press said earlier that at least 30 troops of Yemen’s internationally-recognised government had been killed in the strikes, citing officials from the government.
The Houthis said the operation was carried out in response to what it described as “large Saudi military buildups in their final stages”.
The Saudi-backed military coalition confirmed several members of the Yemeni armed forces were killed and others wounded in the Houthi attacks on Marib and Hadramout on Thursday morning.
The assaults mark one of the most serious escalations in Yemen since the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition reached a ceasefire in 2022.
The eruption of hostilities is likely to raise fears that the US-Iran war – deadlocked for months over control of the Strait of Hormuz – may spread to other parts of the Middle East.
The coalition also said the militant group fired projectiles into the Najran, close to Yemen’s northern borders. Eleven civilians were wounded in the strikes, namely seven Saudi nationals, a Yemeni, two Egyptians and one Pakistani.
The Houthis said on Jul 20 that it would impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, calling it a response to Riyadh’s siege of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. It later fired missiles and drones at oil giant Saudi Aramco’s facilities in the Red Sea port towns of Jizan and Yanbu.
The Houthis are part of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance, a group of anti-US and anti-Israel militias that includes Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and have the ability to disrupt shipping on trade routes such as the Red Sea.
Saudi Arabia has been seeking to contain the conflict through behind-the-scenes diplomacy, Bloomberg reported this week, in a bid to prevent clashes with the Iran-backed group hurting its oil industry and economy.
The kingdom has held talks with the Houthis, a clan from northern Yemen, via Omani mediators and is still preparing military options in case diplomacy fails, said people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity so they could discuss sensitive information.
Soon after the Americans and Israelis started bombing Iran in February, the Islamic Republic pushed the Houthis to prepare for a possible campaign on ships near the southern Red Sea, Bloomberg reported.
The group previously attacked ships in the Red Sea following the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in 2023.
Separately, the Saudis along with Turkey and Pakistan will sign a joint defence agreement in Saudi Arabia on Friday, Reuters reported, citing two regional sources with direct knowledge of the matter. BLOOMBERG
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