Yemen’s Houthis report 300 Saudi airstrikes this week

Sanaa: Yemen’s Houthi group has said that Saudi warplanes launched 26 airstrikes on the southwestern province of Taiz over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of strikes across Yemen this week to 300 as air operations intensified alongside ongoing ground battles on several fronts.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement on social media platform X on Friday (local time) that Saudi F-15 fighter jets carried out the 26 strikes on Taiz after taking off from Khamis Mushait Air Base in southwestern Saudi Arabia.

Sarea added that this week’s 300 airstrikes across nine Yemeni provinces involved F-15 and Typhoon fighter jets operating from Saudi air bases of Khamis Mushait and King Fahd, reports Xinhua news agency.

Saudi authorities had no immediate comment.

The reported strikes came as heavy fighting continued Friday around the Kahbub mountain range in the southern province of Lahj, near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, while clashes persisted across southwestern Taiz and in oil-rich Marib farther northeast.

The latest escalation follows significant Houthi advances along Yemen’s southwestern Red Sea coast earlier this month. Yemen’s conflict erupted in late 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

Meanwhile, explosions were heard in the Saudi capital Riyadh early Saturday. Local residents received air defence alerts via mobile apps.

The Saudi Directorate of Civil Defence later issued a statement on X saying the danger has passed in Riyadh and Al-Kharj and urged residents to continue following its instructions and avoid gathering or filming.

Earlier, it had warned: “An alert has been issued by the National Early Warning Platform for Emergency Cases in Al-Kharj Governorate to warn of a danger.”

IANS