Sana’a, Sept 24. (dpa/GNA) – Yemen’s Houthis, on Thursday said they struck military facilities in Saudi Arabia, as the Iran-aligned militia ramped up its attacks on the oil-rich monarchy, amid an escalation of the war in Yemen.
The rebel group’s military spokesman, Yehya Saree, said they had fired dozens of ballistic missiles and drones, targeting operations rooms, command and control centres, weaponry depots, and missile launch pads in the Jizan region in south-western Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen.
Saree added in a statement that the operation came in response to Saudi missile attacks, allegedly unleashed from Jizan against border areas under the Houthi control, and after the militia had monitored large Saudi troop buildups near the border. There was no immediate Saudi comment.
In recent weeks, the Houthis have intensified their missile and drone attacks on neighbouring Saudi Arabia, and imposed a blockade on its vessels, accusing the kingdom of besieging the Yemeni areas under the militia’s control.
Earlier on Thursday, a Saudi-led alliance fighting the Houthis in Yemen, announced intercepting six ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis, targeting the Saudi cities of Taif and Yanbu. No potential casualties or damage was given.
The Houthis have been fighting Yemen’s Saudi-backed government for more than a decade.
A 2022 truce left the conflict largely frozen, but also with little prospect of an end to the war.
Fighting has recently flared up again in Yemen amid the wider conflict involving Iran, plunging the already impoverished country deeper into war.
GNA