Saudi Arabia vs Houthis: Conflict Intensifies

The Saudi-led coalition said it struck Houthi sites and destroyed targets threatening commercial vessels, describing the action as a response to attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. The strikes came after the Houthis claimed attacks on two Saudi ships in the Red Sea this week. “The terrorist Houthi military… targeted commercial ships in the Red Sea,” Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, wrote on social media platform X. “The coalition carried out a firm and powerful response” by targeting Houthi military sites used to threaten shipping in the Red Sea, and that “the military response has now ended,” al-Maliki added. Houthi media in Yemen reported two people were wounded in the Saudi air strikes. The casualties were a worker in the city of Hodeida and a woman on Kamaran Island. “A worker in the telecommunications building was wounded in the Saudi aggression in the city of Hodeida,” al-Masirah television reported. The Houthi rebel group in Yemen vowed to retaliate against Saudi Arabia after accusing the kingdom of targeting civilian infrastructure. The threat of reprisal came as the Middle Eastern war expands across the region. Riyadh struck Houthi military targets in Hodeida, Yemen, on Friday (24/7). Houthi media reported two people were wounded after the Iran-backed group announced a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia and attacked its ships. The escalation marks a new front in the war that has engulfed the region following US-Israeli strikes on Iran last February. “The targeting of civilian facilities by the Saudi enemy in Hodeida and Kamaran Island is a dangerous escalation,” Houthi-affiliated Ansarollah media wrote on Telegram, as reported by AFP news agency on Saturday (25/7/2026). “We affirm that this recent crime will not go unanswered,” it added. A Yemeni security source told AFP that a naval base in the port city of Hodeida and a military camp on Kamaran Island were among the targets of the Saudi strikes. The Houthi rebel group in Yemen claimed to have launched a missile attack against Saudi Arabia on Saturday (25/7), hours after vowing to retaliate against the kingdom as the war in the Middle East widens. As reported by AFP news agency on Saturday (25/7/2026), Houthi-affiliated Ansarollah media said on Telegram on Saturday morning that a “Yemeni missile attack” had sparked fires in the Red Sea city of Jizan in southern Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia did not immediately comment on the claim. However, Riyadh’s civil defence agency had earlier issued a brief warning to residents in Jizan and Yanbu on Saturday morning about a “potential danger”. The warning was, however, lifted a few minutes later. Similar warnings have been issued previously when missiles or drones were fired towards the kingdom. The warning came after the Saudi-led coalition said on Friday (24/7) that it had struck Houthi sites and destroyed targets threatening commercial ships, describing the strikes as a response to Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping. The Houthi group has been at war with the Yemeni government since 2014, in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. The recent exchange of fire threatens the 2022 ceasefire that has largely held.