Houthis, Saudi-led coalition exchange heavy strikes, fresh casualties reported

Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition exchanged missile, drone and airstrikes, causing casualties and escalating regional tensions. The Houthis claimed attacks on Saudi targets, while coalition strikes hit Yemen, prompting the US to update travel advisories over security threats 

Riyadh/Sanaa: Yemen’s Houthi group and the Saudi-led coalition exchanged heavy attacks, as the Houthis claimed widespread missile and drone strikes across Saudi Arabia, while intense Saudi-led airstrikes rocked Houthi-held areas in Yemen, causing multiple casualties.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement that the group launched seven missile and drone attacks targeting airports, oil facilities, and a military base in the Saudi cities of Riyadh, Yanbu, Rabigh, Dammam, Najran and Khamis Mushait on Saturday.

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Sarea said King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was targeted in two stages. Other attacks struck targets including Saudi Aramco facilities in Yanbu and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition announced it had intercepted and destroyed several missiles launched by the Houthi group toward the cities of Riyadh, Taif and Yanbu, as well as a drone in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia’s General Directorate of Civil Defense said debris from two intercepted missiles fell in the Mecca and Medina regions.

The Houthi group later denied targeting the two holy cities, calling such claims “false and unfounded.”

The group claimed that Saturday’s attacks were launched after what it described as 100 Saudi airstrikes on Houthi-held areas of Yemen over the previous 24 hours, including Houthi-held capital Sanaa and the Red Sea port city of Mocha in the southwestern province of Taiz.

Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported multiple casualties from the strikes, including eight killed and more than 10 others wounded when airstrikes hit housing for cement factory workers in the Hamdan district of Sanaa province.

The strikes came as Yemen’s internationally recognized government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, intensified their “Dawn of Yemen” offensive against the Houthis, while the group has responded with missile and drone attacks.

In a separate statement, Sarea said Houthi forces had targeted what he called Saudi-backed “mobilizations” at Al-Nasr camp and a naval military base in the southern port city of Aden, where Yemen’s government is based. A local security official told Xinhua that the Houthis fired nearly four ballistic missiles at the city, with some striking near Aden International Airport and key military facilities in the Khormaksar district, and another hitting the Coast Guard Troops headquarters in Al-Tawahi district.

Amid the escalation, the US Department of State said Saturday that it had updated its travel advisories for Middle East countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel, citing threats from the Houthis.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of the country’s north. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government.