Houthis Strike Yemen and Saudi Arabia, Heightening Middle East Crisis

Attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthis on a military camp in Yemen and in Saudi Arabia have sparked concerns that the Middle East crisis will continue to spiral. Yemen is being increasingly drawn into the US-Israeli war with Iran, with the Houthi rebels stepping up attacks against both government forces inside the country and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, a key US ally and supporter of the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

On Thursday, at least 30 Yemeni government troops were killed in Houthi attacks on military camps in Yemen, according to government sources. The death toll could rise as more reports come in. The Iran-aligned Houthis claimed they carried out missile and drone strikes in Marib province after observing a large Saudi military buildup. The Houthis claimed military camps, weapons depots and vehicles were destroyed.

The defence ministry of Yemen said only that its armed forces would respond to the attacks “at the appropriate place and time,” while the health minister ordered medical facilities to increase readiness to treat wounded soldiers. In a separate attack early on Friday, a Saudi official accused the Houthis of indiscriminately shelling civilian areas in southern Najran province, injuring 11 civilians, including a four-year-old child. However, neither the Houthis nor Iran immediately commented on this attack.

The conflict has drawn Yemen increasingly into the US-Israeli war with Iran, and Saudi Arabia is preparing for a major military offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, in a move to break their chokehold on Saudi oil exports through the southern Red Sea. In a statement, Maj General Turki al-Maliki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led military coalition supporting Yemen's government, said the coalition would continue taking all necessary measures to protect civilians.

The Houthi movement, which controls Yemen’s capital Sana’a and much of its Red Sea coastline, declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea last month. A senior Saudi official on Thursday said the kingdom was expecting imminent coordinated attacks from the north and south by Iraqi militias and the Houthis in Yemen under the supervision of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The attack in southern Najran province injured seven Saudis, one Yemeni, two Egyptians and one Pakistani national. The source text did not mention any specific number of deaths but indicated that the death toll could rise as more reports come in. Neither the Houthis nor Iran immediately commented on this attack.

It comes as Iran and Oman said negotiations on an agreement over the strait of Hormuz was in its “final stage” of drafting, with the agreement likely to be contingent on the US lifting its blockade on Iran’s ports. The strait is crucial to global shipping and energy supplies. Before the war, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February, about one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed through the waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

With Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse

Sources: The Guardian, Al Jazeera