Houthi attacks reportedly kill at least 30 Yemeni government forces
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- Houthis launched ballistic missiles and drone strikes at 10:40 local time Thursday against military camps in Yemen's Marib and Hadramawt provinces, reportedly killing at least 30 government troops though the toll remains unverified
- AFP cited military sources placing the death toll at 58 Yemeni troops, higher than its earlier 38, while pro-government outlets Aden al-Ghad and Belqees TV reported more than 40 dead
- The Yemeni defense ministry condemned the attacks as "treacherous" and vowed to respond "at the appropriate time and place"
- Houthi spokesman Yahia Sarea claimed the strikes killed "hundreds of Saudi enemy mercenaries" and targeted Saudi-backed Emergency Forces preparing for an offensive, claiming large Saudi military build-ups
- In a separate incident, a Houthi strike on Saudi Arabia's Najran border region wounded 11 civilians — a four-year-old child and a woman among them with second-degree burns, the rest from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan and Egypt
- Saudi Arabia launched a new 43-country naval coalition the same Thursday to protect Red Sea and Gulf of Aden shipping, with its commander insisting the force is "purely defensive"
- The attacks come amid the collapse of a UN-brokered ceasefire that held since 2022, with the Houthis declaring a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia on July 20 and US mission to Yemen calling the strikes "cowardly" terrorism
Why it matters: The Houthi strikes hit the same day Saudi Arabia launched a 43-country naval coalition, with both sides actively re-escalating a civil war that has killed more than 150,000 since 2014 and now threatens a UN-brokered ceasefire held since 2022 — a collapse the UN warned could reverse years of hard-won violence reduction.
