At least 30 Yemeni government troops have reportedly been killed in Houthi attacks on military camps in central Yemen, in one of the most serious escalations since a UN-brokered ceasefire largely reduced fighting in the country.
Yemen’s defence ministry said ballistic missiles and drones struck several camps in the provinces of Marib and Hadramawt at 10:40 local time on Thursday. It said the attacks had caused deaths and injuries among Yemeni personnel but did not give an exact toll.
The ministry denounced the strikes as “treacherous” and said it would “respond to this aggression at an appropriate time and place”.
The death toll has not been independently verified. AFP news agency cited a military source as saying at least 58 Yemeni troops had been killed, after earlier reporting a figure of 38. Military sources also told the pro-government newspaper Aden al-Ghad and the anti-Houthi Belqees TV website that more than 40 troops were killed.
A military official told AFP that missiles and drones hit a camp in the al-Ruwaik area of Marib province, as well as camps in the al-Abr and al-Wadiah areas of Hadramawt, near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis, who control much of north-western Yemen and are backed by Iran, said they had targeted what they described as “large Saudi military build-ups” preparing for an offensive. A Saudi-led coalition has supported Yemen’s internationally recognised government during the civil war.
Houthi military spokesman Yahia Sarea claimed the attacks had caused the death and injury of “hundreds of Saudi enemy mercenaries” and destroyed a large number of buildings, weapons and military vehicles. He said the targeted camps were in the al-Ruwaik, al-Abr and al-Thaniyah areas.
Mr Sarea said the camps belonged to the Saudi-backed Yemeni Emergency Forces and that the Houthis had observed “large Saudi military build-ups in their final stages, aimed at escalating the aggression against the liberated provinces and the Yemeni people”.
In a separate incident, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition said 11 civilians had been wounded in Saudi Arabia’s border region of Najran in what they described as a Houthi strike.
In a statement shared on X, the coalition spokesperson said the wounded included seven Saudi nationals, among them a woman and a four-year-old child who both suffered second-degree burns. The other four civilians were from Yemen, Pakistan and Egypt.
The latest attacks come amid a rise in hostilities linked to Houthi action against Saudi Arabia and shipping routes in the Red Sea. The group announced what it called a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia on 20 July and began launching missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.
The Houthis said the embargo was retaliation for what they described as a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in territory under their control. They also cited an air strike on Sanaa airport, which they blamed on Saudi Arabia, despite a claim from the Yemeni government.
Saudi Arabia has responded with strikes targeting Houthi positions and by forming a new naval coalition intended to protect shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Saudi state media reported that representatives of 43 countries attended the coalition’s founding meeting on Thursday. The new commander was quoted as saying the force was “purely defensive in nature and does not target any country, organisation or coalition”.
The renewed fighting has prompted concern from the United Nations. Deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq called on all parties to “exercise restraint and refrain from actions that could lead to further military escalation”.
“Renewed fighting risks reversing the hard-won gains made towards reducing violence in the past years,” he told reporters.
The US mission to Yemen condemned the Houthi attacks as “cowardly” and said they were another example of what it called “their terrorism against the Yemeni people”.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the government from Sanaa, the capital. The conflict escalated in 2015 after the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states intervened in an attempt to restore the government’s rule.
The war has reportedly killed more than 150,000 people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. According to the UN, more than 22 million people in Yemen need some form of aid.
A UN-brokered ceasefire has largely held since 2022, helping to reduce violence after years of intense conflict. However, the attacks in central Yemen and the cross-border strike reported by the Saudi-led coalition have raised fears that the fragile pause in large-scale fighting could be further undermined.
