Saudi Arabia warns it will react 'firmly' to Houthi attacks / Photo: © AFP
Saudi Arabia warns it will react 'firmly' to Houthi attacks
Saudi Arabia warned Tuesday it will react "firmly" to Yemen's Houthis, after a series of attacks carried out by the pro-Iranian rebels using ballistic missiles and drones wounded 13 civilians in the country's south.
The Houthis have been engaged in renewed fighting with Saudi-backed government forces since Yemen's civil war reignited in July, when the group declared a maritime blockade on Riyadh and began targeting its ships in the Red Sea.
The group seized control of Yemen's Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandab Strait last week, which has become vital as the wider US-Iran war chokes the Strait of Hormuz, in a significant blow to Yemeni government forces.
It has also targeted the oil infrastructure of Saudi Arabia, the world's leading crude exporter, pushing oil prices above the $100 threshold.
A Houthi strike in western Yemen on Monday killed eight soldiers from government forces, according to two military sources.
The Houthis claimed a new "large-scale" attack using "dozens of ballistic missiles and drones" against the King Khalid airbase in Khamis Mushait, in southern Saudi Arabia.
A Khamis Mushait resident told AFP he heard "intense blasts" which left fires burning for a "long time".
"Honestly, we couldn't sleep at all."
The Riyadh-led coalition confirmed Tuesday there had been missile and drone attacks the previous day on Khamis Mushait, Abha and Taif, reporting 13 wounded.
Riyadh responded with more than 50 strikes, as it had the day before, according to the Houthis.
The coalition said it would deal with the attacks "firmly to protect the sovereignty of the Kingdom" and would take "all necessary operational measures to deter this... hostile and extremist approach".
Hazem al-Assad from the Houthis' politburo said the "Yemeni response will continue and escalate as long as they (Saudi Arabia) persist in their aggression against our people".
In the early hours of Tuesday, Saudi civil defence issued air-raid alerts in six regions, before lifting them.
The renewed fighting in Yemen comes as the wider regional war remains at a stalemate. But US President Donald Trump on Monday said he was open to holding talks with Iran.
"The failing Nation of Iran wants to make a deal, quickly and badly. I will determine whether or not the U.S.A. will choose to engage -- The concept of which we are open to," Trump said on his Truth Social network.
Iran's top security chief Mohsen Rezaei said on X that "there will be no negotiations until Iran's conditions are met. That is all there is to it".
- Wider regional war -
A proposed meeting between Gulf states and Iran over the future of Hormuz was postponed on Monday, with Tehran accusing Riyadh of using Yemen as a "pretext" to delay the talks.
Tehran has long supported the Houthis, a member of its anti-Israel "axis of resistance", including with weapons and technology, but analysts dispute the extent to which Iran is behind the renewed fighting.
"Iran does not interfere in Yemeni affairs," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters on Monday, saying the Houthis are "entirely independent actors who make their decisions based on their own interests".
Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was expected to hold talks with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Tuesday, Cairo announced.
US media reported last week Trump had rejected a personal request from the Saudi crown prince to intervene in the war.
- Forced to flee -
Yemeni government forces on Sunday said they had recaptured positions in the southwestern province of Taiz from Houthi fighters and carried out airstrikes, telling the official Saba news agency they killed at least 10 gunmen.
The Saudi crown prince received US Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper in Jeddah on Monday to discuss "the latest developments in the region", according to Saudi news agency SPA.
The admiral travelled to Saudi Arabia on Thursday for urgent coordination meetings, according to US news site Axios.
The Houthis seized Yemen's capital Sanaa in 2014 at the outset of the civil war, driving the government to Aden in the south.
The following year, Saudi Arabia led a coalition to intervene on the side of the government, launching wave after wave of airstrikes as the conflict escalated into one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
The UN's migration agency said Monday the renewed fighting in the Arab world's poorest country had forced 93,864 people to flee their homes.
(L.Svenson--DTZ)
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