The Yemeni Ansar Allah rebel movement, also known by the surname of its leaders, the Houthis, which is aligned with Iran, announced today that it carried out an attack using unmanned aerial vehicles and missiles against a military base in southern Saudi Arabia, a kingdom that is the main supporter of Yemen’s internationally recognized rival government.
Large-scale fighting this week in western Yemen left hundreds dead on both sides and resulted in the displacement of tens of thousands of people, a situation the International Organization for Migration (IOM) fears will worsen rapidly.
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Faced with the advance of the rebels, forces of the internationally recognized government announced yesterday, Saturday, and this morning a series of strikes in areas along the Red Sea coast. The Houthis, for their part, reported numerous bombings by Saudi Arabia. Today, they announced that they had retaliated by launching a drone and missile attack against a military base in the southern part of the kingdom.
The attack targeted “weapons depots and command-and-control centers from which the assault against our nation and our people is being directed, at the military base in Sarura,” near the border with Yemen, said Yahya Saria, the movement’s spokesperson for military affairs, via X.
Earlier, Saudi civil defense authorities reported two injuries caused by a missile launched by the Houthis that struck Jazan, also on the border.
Ansar Allah, which announced in July that it was imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, targeting the kingdom’s oil tankers, had already announced that it had launched a large-scale attack this week against the neighboring country, as the leader of a military coalition supporting the forces of the internationally recognized government, which have, however, suffered heavy defeats in recent days.
Of strategic importance
The Iran-aligned fighters, who until now controlled most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sana’a and Hodeidah (to the west), advanced southward within a matter of days and on Thursday captured the city of Mocha, home to an important port.
Then, on Friday, the movement took control of the country’s Red Sea coastline and the islands in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, following a lightning-fast advance that cemented its dominance over this strategically important maritime route, which connects Europe to Asia via the Suez Canal.
For their part, government forces reported that they attacked the Houthis near Mocha and on a road leading to Dambab, further south, adding that in the early morning hours they carried out three airstrikes in the province of Taiz.
After years of relative calm—thanks to a ceasefire between the government and Ansar Allah, even though it had technically expired—Yemen has once again been plunged into war since July, against the backdrop of the broader war in the Middle East, which erupted with the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28.
The conflict has put Saudi Arabia on the defensive, as it has suffered repeated attacks from Iran in recent months, as have other U.S. allies in the Gulf
According to a report by the American news website Axios, which cited sources within Donald Trump’s administration, the U.S. president refused to order airstrikes against the Houthis, as requested by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during two phone calls between them on Thursday.
The U.S. president said yesterday that the movement, which had been targeted by U.S. airstrikes in 2025, following a series of attacks by the group against commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in support of Hamas in the war with Israel in the Gaza Strip, they asked him not to intervene in the war in Yemen.
“Supplies have run out”
The escalation of hostilities has resulted in large-scale population displacements, mainly toward Aden, the major city in southern Yemen where the seat of the internationally recognized government has been relocated.
Nearly 76,000 people were forcibly displaced, and found themselves on the streets after the war flared up again in July, according to UN estimates released yesterday, Saturday.
“They told us, ‘Leave (…) You have half an hour,’” recounted Abdulalim Ar Rajihi, describing “scenes of horror” as he fled from Mocha. “What can you do in half an hour?” he protested. “We left with only the clothes on our backs. And with our children.”
More than 70,000 people fled in September alone, according to an IOM spokesperson, who spoke of a new “displacement crisis.”
“Emergency response supplies have now been exhausted following recent efforts to address the floods,” he warned, emphasizing the urgent need for shelter, food, water, and other basic necessities.
Authorities in Djibouti announced yesterday, Saturday, that within 24 hours, some 1,400 people had fled Yemen and arrived by sea in the small country on the Horn of Africa, on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Source: APE-MPE
