Yemen’s government forces struck Houthi targets in Sanaa, Saada and Taiz on Sunday, intensifying a renewed civil war that has widened into a regional conflict involving Saudi Arabia.
The armed forces carried out strikes in the capital, the northwestern governorate of Saada — a Houthi stronghold — and Taiz in the southwest, military spokesman Colonel Majid al-Nuzaili said.
The strikes came hours after the Iran-backed Houthis claimed an attack on an oil facility near Riyadh, where an AFP journalist reported seeing flames and smoke. The group also accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out dozens of strikes on Sanaa.
Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV said “Saudi enemy aircraft” had carried out 26 strikes on Sanaa, following earlier reports of “Saudi aggression” against the capital. It gave no details on targets or casualties.
Two correspondents in Sanaa reported hearing loud explosions and seeing warplanes fire missiles at the city.
Fighting spreads across Yemen and Saudi Arabia
Yemen was plunged back into civil war in July after years of relative calm, pitting the Houthis, who control most of northwestern Yemen including Sanaa, against the internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government.
The government, based in Aden, controls much of the south and east, a larger but less populated part of the country.
The two sides have traded strikes since the Houthis seized Yemen’s Red Sea coast and took control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait in a lightning offensive last month.
The Houthis have also attacked Saudi targets, including oil infrastructure and Riyadh, while announcing a naval blockade of Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.
In Saudi Arabia, an AFP journalist reported seeing flames and smoke rising Saturday afternoon from an Aramco facility south of Riyadh.
Saudi authorities have not commented. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said late Saturday that the group had targeted an oil facility in Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones, causing fires at the sites.
The AFP journalist reported seeing firefighters attempting to extinguish a blaze at Aramco’s Riyadh refinery, while ambulances and police vehicles were stationed nearby.
The Houthis’ Al-Masirah channel also reported missile strikes on the telecommunications network in Saada.
The group said Saudi Arabia had bombed Sanaa on Thursday night for the first time since fighting resumed in July.
Taiz emerges as key battlefield
Fighting in recent days has centred on Taiz, where dozens of combatants were reported killed on Friday.
The Houthis said 55 of their fighters had been killed, while government sources told AFP that 26 troops had died.
The battle is unfolding across several fronts, including highlands overlooking coastal areas recently captured by the Houthis.
The Houthis have seized large areas of territory but have not taken Taiz city, Yemen’s third-largest city after Sanaa and Aden.
The group also said Friday that Saudi Arabia had carried out 94 strikes against areas under its control over a 24-hour period.
Saudi authorities reported that a Houthi projectile damaged a school in Najran, near the Yemeni border.
Renewed war deepens humanitarian crisis
The latest fighting erupted after four years of a fragile truce when Iran sent a plane carrying a Houthi delegation to Sanaa without seeking Saudi authorisation, breaking a practice that had been in place for a decade.
Riyadh responded by striking Sanaa airport, after which the Houthis attacked Saudi territory for the first time since 2022.
The renewed hostilities have since intensified, with the Houthis launching a rapid offensive and taking control of coastal areas along the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
The escalation has further worsened Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. The World Food Programme warned on Friday that three-quarters of the population was unable to meet basic food needs.
US warns Iran over Strait of Hormuz
The escalation in Yemen comes as Washington continues to pressure Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US blockade of the strait was “ironclad” and that President Donald Trump had “all the options he needs on the table” if Iran continued to challenge US policy, according to an AP report carried by the Times of Israel.
“Iran wants to play games with things like the Strait of Hormuz. They don’t control it, we do,” Hegseth told reporters.
Hegseth also said Trump was determined to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“The message is very simple: Iran will never ever ever have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
Trump separately told reporters that Iran had “virtually given up any plans of a nuclear weapon.”
“We have a decision that I’ll make about Iran. Iran has been decimated, so the only question is, it’ll either be the easy way or the hard way,” Trump said.
Trump says war could end soon
US President Donald Trump said the war with Iran could end soon, while questioning who Washington could negotiate with in Tehran.
Speaking at a rally in Mobile, Alabama, Trump said there was nobody in Iran with whom the United States could negotiate, asking: “Who do I speak to in Iran?”
Trump again said Iran would “never have a nuclear weapon” and criticised previous US presidents for failing to act.
He also described Iran as being left without a navy, air force, radar or air-defence systems, and said its economy was suffering from high inflation.
Cabinet Officials Meet At Camp David
Trump’s top cabinet members secretly met at Camp David on Friday to discuss next steps in the Iran war and the Saudi-Houthi conflict in Yemen, Axios reported, citing three US officials familiar with the meeting.
The meeting was chaired by Vice President JD Vance and included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine.
One official told Axios that issues were “decided or at least deeply discussed” during the meeting.
Russia Rejects Calls For Iran To Abandon Nuclear Programme
Russia’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mikhail Ulyanov, rejected US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz’s call for Iran to abandon its nuclear programme.
Ulyanov said Iran was not obliged to abandon its programme and described it as the country’s “inalienable right”.
He also said the position of the Republican administration was based on what he called incorrect assumptions about non-proliferation norms and the IAEA’s activities.
Fighting Intensifies In Yemen’s Taiz
Yemen’s armed forces said they carried out 71 attacks targeting Houthi gatherings, reinforcements and military buildups across several areas of Taiz province.
A Houthi military spokesperson said the operations destroyed several Houthi transport and support vehicles and caused casualties among the group’s fighters.
The fighting has also involved Saudi-backed forces, with sources on both sides telling AFP that 80 combatants were killed over the past day in clashes near a waterway crucial to global energy flows.
The United Kingdom condemned the latest Houthi attacks in Taiz and warned of threats to civilians.
Tanker Hit Off Oman
The master of a crude oil tanker reported that the vessel was struck by an unknown projectile four nautical miles east of Oman, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said.
UKMTO said all crew were safe and there was no reported environmental impact, while advising vessels to transit with caution.
Missile Debris Injures Resident In Saudi Arabia
Debris from a ballistic missile intercepted over Saudi Arabia’s Asir region injured a resident in Ahad Rafidah, Saudi Civil Defence said.
The agency said falling debris also damaged vehicles and a prayer room inside a building.
