Houthi Attacks Raise Security Concerns After 11 Are Wounded in Saudi Arabia
RIYADH — The Saudi-led coalition said Friday that 11 civilians were wounded in a Houthi attack on the southern border region of Najran, a day after the Iran-backed group launched its deadliest assault on government forces in Yemen since 2022.
The Joint Forces Command said the civilians were injured late Thursday when projectiles struck civilian areas in Najran. The wounded included seven Saudi citizens, a Yemeni, two Egyptians, and a Pakistani national. Among the Saudis were a woman and a four-year-old child who suffered second-degree burns, according to coalition spokesman Major General Turki Al-Malki.
The border strike came hours after a large-scale Houthi missile and drone assault on military camps in the Marib and Hadramout governorates. At least 58 government soldiers were killed and dozens wounded, according to local sources cited by AFP, making it the deadliest strike against Yemen’s internationally recognized government forces since 2022.
Al-Malki accused “Houthi terrorists” of deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in violation of international humanitarian law, adding that coalition forces would continue taking “all deterrent measures” to protect civilians from further attacks.
The attacks underscore a sharp deterioration in Yemen’s security situation after the country’s long-running conflict became entangled in the wider regional confrontation last month. The Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, abandoned a fragile truce with the Saudi-backed government after welcoming an Iranian aircraft into Sanaa. The group later declared a maritime blockade of Saudi ports and began targeting Saudi-linked shipping. Yemen has been devastated by more than a decade of conflict since the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014, killing hundreds of thousands and creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Although a UN-brokered truce in 2022 significantly reduced fighting, the latest attacks have raised fears that the conflict is entering a new and more dangerous phase.
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