Saudi Arabia says 73 wounded in Houthi attacks on sites
Photo: REUTERS
Saudi Arabia accused Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Tuesday of targeting civilian and economic infrastructure within the kingdom. The attacks wounded at least 73 civilians, including women and children.
This escalation occurred as battlefield hostilities intensified inside Yemen, where the internally recognized government - backed by a Saudi-led coalition - initiated a counteroffensive to reclaim territories from the Iran-aligned Houthis.
Major-General Turki al-Maliki, the official spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition, issued a statement confirming that the Houthi forces struck residential and commercial locations across the southern provinces of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jizan, and Najran.
Although Al-Maliki did not clarify the exact timing of these strikes, he condemned the aggression, describing the actions as a “dangerous escalation” and a “blatant violation” of the sovereignty of Saudi Arabia.
He warned that the strikes posed a direct, immediate threat to both Saudi citizens and foreign residents. He declared that the military coalition would initiate “all necessary operational measures” to counter these assaults and neutralize the origin of the threats.
At the same time, the Saudi Ministry of Energy released a separate announcement, saying Houthi projectiles hit several “energy sector facilities and installations” in the southern territories of the kingdom early on Tuesday.
Energy Ministry detailed that the strikes wounded a “number of citizens and residents” and ignited “fires at several locations”, which ultimately forced a “temporary halt in some operations” at the affected facilities.
Later on Tuesday, the Houthis released their own official statement, claiming they launched the massive barrage to retaliate against more than 120 air strikes that Saudi Arabia conducted against Yemen over the preceding three days.
Yahya Saree, the spokesperson for the Houthi military, added, “Yemeni armed forces carried out a large-scale, long-range military operation … using dozens of ballistic missiles and drones.”
Prior to this strike, the Houthi group accused Saudi Arabia of launching a devastating airstrike on a detention facility in al-Hazm, located in the northern al-Jawf governorate, which killed at least seven people. The rebels warned that the “ongoing Saudi aggression against Yemen will not go unpunished.”
Riyadh has offered no official comment regarding the prison airstrike allegation. This devastating conflict has ravaged Yemen since 2014 when the Houthis captured the capital city of Sanaa, which triggered a Saudi-led military campaign the following year in 2015.
While a United Nations-brokered truce in 2022 mostly halted active combat between the factions, full-scale fighting flared up again following the war that the United States and Israel initiated against Iran in February.
Active hostilities officially resumed in July after the Houthis targeted Saudi Arabia’s Abha international airport with a volley of missiles and drones, retaliating against an earlier strike on the Sanaa airport.
Later in July, the rebel faction declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia and began launching targeted attacks against Saudi-linked commercial vessels navigating the Red Sea.
On Thursday, the Houthis launched a massive ground offensive, attempting to push through the western areas of Taiz and southern Hodeidah toward the crucial port city of al-Makha (Mocha), situated along the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea.
While clashes initially concentrated west of Taiz and south of Hodeidah, the conflict has rapidly engulfed the provinces of al-Dhalea, Marib, al-Jawf, and al-Bayda as the recognized Yemeni government attempts to stretch the capabilities of the Houthi forces and mount pressure on the rebel organization.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the violence has killed or wounded around 1,078 people since 24 August, while displacing more than 21,000 citizens since Thursday alone.
Source: Al Jazeera (adapted)
