Houthi strikes in Yemen as Saudi Arabia braces for attacks: What we know

Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen launched at least 12 fresh missile attacks on the Yemeni provinces of Hadramout and Marib on Friday, following drone and ballistic missiles launched at Saudi-led coalition and Yemeni government military sites, killing at least 30 soldiers in the country, on Thursday.

Separately, a senior Saudi official told journalists that a Houthi attack on southern Saudi Arabia on Thursday had wounded 11 civilians, including a young child.

On Friday, a senior Saudi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that intelligence suggests the Houthis and Iraqi armed groups may launch new attacks under the supervision of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including on energy infrastructure, ports and airports.

The attacks, the deadliest in years in Yemen’s civil war, mark a major escalation in the regional conflict which has been reignited by the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran at the end of February. They follow an increase in violence in Yemen seen in recent weeks.

Since the Yemen war broke out in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed.

Saudi Arabia led an Arab coalition in a campaign to dislodge the Houthis from 2015 until a 2022 truce, but the Houthis currently remain in control of the capital and other parts of Yemen.

Yemeni government sources told Al Jazeera that at least 30 government soldiers were killed and 15 others injured when Houthis fired eight missiles from al-Jawf governorate, north of Marib, targeting al-Thiniya and al-Abr in Hadramout and al-Rouk in Marib on Thursday. The sources said casualty numbers were expected to rise.

Al Jazeera’s Yemen affairs editor Ahmed al-Shalafi reported that the missiles struck at 2pm local time (11:00 GMT) on Thursday, hitting camps belonging to several government military formations, the Homeland Shield Forces, the Emergency Forces and the First Military Region in Hadramout.