Houthi attacks reportedly kill at least 30 Yemeni government forces
SkimNews Take
Striking both Yemeni government positions and Saudi territory within the same operational window suggests the Houthis are sustaining multi-front offensive capacity rather than merely contesting territory.
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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.
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