Houthis vow response after claiming 129 Saudi strikes on Yemen

Yemen's Houthi group on Saturday accused Saudi Arabia of launching 129 airstrikes across seven provinces over the past 48 hours, claiming "Saudi aircraft" targeted positions from Taiz to Saada. Spokesman Yahya Saree vowed to retaliate amid a sharp escalation in the fractured country's civil war. Riyadh maintains it has no troops on the ground and only supports the internationally recognized government while securing its borders, and Saudi authorities offered no immediate comment on the claims.

Territorial shifts

The announcements followed rapid shifts in Yemen's map of control, as the Houthis seized districts in western Hodeidah and Taiz provinces along with Red Sea islands including Mayyun in the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Government forces concurrently reported advances in Al-Jawf province bordering Saudi Arabia, stating they were closing in on the provincial capital Al-Hazm. Earlier on Saturday, the Yemeni army said its warplanes destroyed dozens of Houthi trucks carrying weapons and missiles from Taiz toward Sanaa, according to the Taiz Military Axis.

Fragile truce

Yemen had experienced a relative lull since April 2022 after nearly 12 years of war pitting the Saudi-led coalition against the Iranian-backed Houthis, who captured Sanaa in 2014, but since late 2023 the group has attacked Israel and Red Sea commercial shipping amid the Gaza war. The renewed fighting has stoked fears of a return to full-scale conflict as the UN-brokered truce has largely held despite its formal expiration in October 2022. Saudi officials have repeatedly stated they seek a political solution to the conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands according to UN estimates.