Houthis and Saudi-led Coalition Launch Large-Scale Attacks on Each Other
Riyadh/Sanaa (ANTARA) – Yemen’s Houthi group and the Saudi-led coalition launched large-scale attacks against each other on Saturday (24 October).
The Houthis claimed to have carried out a series of extensive missile and drone attacks across Saudi Arabia, while intensive air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition hit Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, causing casualties.
Yahya Sarea, a Houthi military spokesman, said in a statement that the group had launched seven missile and drone attacks targeting airports, oil facilities and a military base in the Saudi cities of Riyadh, Yanbu, Rabigh, Dammam, Najran and Khamis Mushait.
Sarea said King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was attacked in two waves. Other strikes targeted several locations, including a Saudi Aramco facility in Yanbu and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam.
The Saudi-led coalition, meanwhile, announced that it had intercepted and destroyed several missiles launched by the Houthis towards Riyadh, Taif and Yanbu, as well as a drone in the Eastern Province.
Saudi Arabia’s General Directorate of Civil Defence said debris from two intercepted missiles fell in the regions of Makkah and Madinah.
The Houthis later denied targeting the two holy cities, calling such claims false and unfounded.
The Houthis said Saturday’s attacks were launched in response to what they described as 100 Saudi air strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in the preceding 24 hours.
The air strikes reportedly hit Sanaa, Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital, as well as the Red Sea port city of Mocha in Taiz Province in south-western Yemen.
Houthi-run Al-Masirah television reported casualties, including eight people killed and more than 10 injured when air strikes hit workers’ accommodation at a cement factory in Hamdan District, Sanaa Province.
The attacks came as internationally recognised Yemeni government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, intensified their “Dawn of Yemen” offensive against the Houthis. The group responded with missile and drone attacks.
In a separate statement, Sarea said Houthi forces had targeted what he called Saudi-backed troop deployments at Al-Nasr camp and a naval military base in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, the seat of the Yemeni government.
A local security official told Xinhua that the Houthis had fired about four ballistic missiles at the city. Some struck areas near Aden International Airport and a key military facility in Khormaksar District, while another hit the Yemeni Coast Guard headquarters in Al-Tawahi District.
Amid the escalating tensions, the United States Department of State said on Saturday that it had updated its travel advisories for several Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel, citing the Houthi threat.
Yemen has been in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north.
In 2015, the Saudi-led coalition intervened in support of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.