Yemeni army strikes Houthi forces in Taiz amid escalation

Yemen’s Houthis said Saudi Arabia was attacking the Yemeni capital Sanaa on ​Tuesday after a Saudi-led coalition warned civilians to stay away from an oil depot on the city outskirts, part of a rapidly ‌escalating war between the sides.

The Houthis have for a week been targeting Saudi airports, including a strike on Riyadh on Saturday that killed 13 people, in retaliation for the kingdom’s backing of government forces against the Houthis in Yemen’s reignited civil war.

Read: Saudi warning system stayed silent before deadly airport attacks

Houthi-run Al-Masirah television reported that the Saudi-led coalition had targeted the Yemen Petroleum Company’s (YPC) Sabah central station, a fuel ​depot on the outskirts of Sanaa.

YPC said the facility did not currently hold any stocks of petroleum products and that targeting it ​did not affect oil reserves or supply chains.

However, the Houthis had earlier threatened a “harsh and painful” response to any strikes ⁠on Sanaa, with spokesperson Yahya Saree saying targets could include the Saudi Aramco headquarters in Dhahran and an oil refinery in Riyadh.

The group renewed earlier ​warnings it had issued to oil workers in Saudi Arabia, telling them to stay away from sites that could be potential targets.

The Saudi cabinet, chaired ​by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, issued a statement saying the Houthis would face consequences for their repeated attacks on the kingdom.

Saturday’s ballistic missile strike on Riyadh airport was the deadliest in Saudi Arabia for a decade, with further attacks grounding flights across the country even as it hosts a major energy conference.

Reignited Yemen war

Saudi Arabia ​resumed its military campaign in Yemen in support of the internationally recognised government in a bid to reverse the Houthis’ sudden gains last month when ​they swept down the Red Sea coast to the critical Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea, has become a more vital route for ‌Saudi and ⁠other global energy supplies since the start of the Iran war in February, when Tehran closed the Hormuz Strait leading from the Gulf to the Indian Ocean.

He said he may ask Erdogan to intervene in support of Saudi interests.

Washington, Saudi Arabia’s strongest ally and longtime security guarantor, has so far rebuffed Saudi efforts to bring it directly into the war against the Houthis.

The Yemen ⁠conflict has ​resumed as a spillover from the wider US-Iran war that began with the US-Israeli attack ​on the Islamic Republic starting on February 28.

Iran, Riyadh’s longtime arch regional rival, has offered to mediate between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, its foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday in ​statements reiterated by the ministry on Monday.

Yemeni army strikes Houthi forces in Taiz

Earlier today, Yemeni government forces carried out nine airstrikes targeting Houthi fighters and military equipment in the southwestern Taiz province as escalation continues to rage across the country, according to the army.

The Taiz Military Axis Media Centre said warplanes belonging to the Yemeni armed forces carried out five strikes in the Al-Dhabab area and four others in Al-Misrakh district.

The strikes targeted Houthi personnel and military equipment, the centre said.

It added that clashes were also ongoing between government forces and Houthi fighters on the Al-Shaqab front south of Taiz. The military did not provide details on casualties or damage.

Meanwhile, the Taiz office of Yemen’s Human Rights Ministry said in a statement late on Monday that six civilians, including a girl, were killed and others were injured in Houthi shelling that struck densely populated villages in rural Taiz on Sunday.

Read: Saudi warning system stayed silent before deadly airport attacks

In Taiz city, the office said 17 civilians, including five women and six children, were injured and seven homes were damaged in Houthi shelling over the previous 24 hours.

The office did not specify the nature or severity of the injuries or the extent of the damage

The non-governmental Taiz Human Rights Centre accused the Houthis of shelling the area around Al-Safwa Hospital, a private facility in central Taiz city.

It said a shell landed near the hospital, causing material damage to patient rooms and frightening patients and medical staff.

Thousands displaced

Amid the continuing escalation, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday evening that 216,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since August, including more than 172,000 from Taiz province.

The UN and humanitarian partners have so far reached around 143,000 people with emergency assistance, including food, hygiene supplies and cash support, the agency said.

On Saturday, local authorities in Taiz warned that the Houthis have tightened their siege on the province, threatening the lives, security and livelihoods of more than 6 million residents.

The Yemeni army launched Operation “Dawn of Yemen” last week, aimed at restoring state institutions and ending Houthi control of the capital Sanaa.

The developments are part of a military escalation that began in July, the most extensive since the relative calm that followed a UN-brokered truce that began in April 2022.

Yemen has been engulfed in war since the Houthis seized Sanaa and several of the country’s 22 provinces in September 2014, prompting an Arab coalition led by neighbouring Saudi Arabia to intervene in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government.

The Houthis fully control most northern and western provinces, including Sanaa, Saada, Amran, Dhamar, Al Hudaydah, Ibb, Al Mahwit and Raymah, while maintaining partial control over parts of Hajjah, Al-Bayda, Marib, Al-Jawf, Al-Dhalea and Taiz.

Read more: Saudi Arabia rejects Israeli bid to join fight against Houthis: Israeli media

Government forces and their allies control the interim capital Aden, the eastern provinces of Al-Mahra and Hadramout, the southern provinces of Shabwa and Abyan, most of Lahj and Al-Dhalea, and parts of Taiz, Marib, Al-Jawf, Hajjah and Saada.

Yemen military shoot down Saudi drone

The Yemeni military said its air defence units intercepted and shot down a Saudi unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the airspace over the country’s northwestern Sa’ada province.

Spokesman for the Yemeni military, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said in a statement in the morning that the Yemeni armed forces detected and targeted an armed Wing Loong II reconnaissance drone belonging to the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF), using an appropriate weapon.

The development came shortly after the Yemeni army successfully targeted King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in a new ballistic missile strike.