Houthis strike Yemen government and Saudi targets as violence intensifies
Yemen's Houthis have hit a range of targets in Saudi Arabia and in pro-government areas including Aden, as the country's war intensifies.
According to the state-run Saba news agency, the Sanaa-based group targeted the airport in Aden, seat of the internationally recognised government, on Wednesday.
"Houthi terrorist militias targeted Aden International Airport with two ballistic missiles and explosive-laden drones," the agency reported.
The Houthis, known officially as Ansar Allah, said they had targeted a military base located within the airport complex.
"Our armed forces fired ballistic missiles at a Saudi military supply convoy that had arrived at Camp Badr, near the airport," said Ansar Allah military spokesman Yahya Saree.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Earlier this week, Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, began a counter-offensive to retake Red Sea coastal territory that the Houthis captured last month.
The Yemeni government announced on Sunday that the campaign's overall objective is to retake all of the territory it has lost to the Houthis over 12 years of war.
Bab al-Mandab advance
Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies began attacking Houthi positions on Monday.
By evening local time, they claimed they had taken back the Arabian Gulf side of the Bab al-Mandab Strait and Mocha, the strategic Red Sea port city that the Houthis had wrested from them in September.
Houthi channels denied that Mocha had been taken, posting videos of their fighters inside the city. Other reports and open source information appeared to corroborate this, suggesting that the fighting around the port city was largely made up of long-range missile exchanges and that Mocha remains in the hands of the Houthis.
On Tuesday, the Iran-aligned movement claimed missile and drone attacks on several sites across Saudi Arabia.
Sanaa said it had targeted the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with drones. It also said that missile and drone strikes were launched at the Abha International Airport and an airbase in the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait.
The fighting in Yemen has intensified the humanitarian crisis in the country.
More than 130,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen since the beginning of August, the UN's refugee agency said on Tuesday.
The UNHCR also reported that nearly 3,700 people had fled Yemen for Djibouti since 10 September.
The World Health Organisation said 959 people were killed and 4,207 wounded across Yemen between 6 August and 2 October.
The WHO also reported that cholera cases had tripled in three weeks, with 94 percent of recent cases recorded in five governorates hosting large numbers of displaced people, including Taiz, Aden and Abyan.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
