Airstrikes hit telecom towers in Yemen, killing four: Houthi media

Sanaa: Four people were killed and three others injured on Sunday in Saudi airstrikes targeting telecommunications infrastructure in Yemen’s northern province of Al-Jawf, Houthi-run media said.

The Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV said Saudi warplanes struck telecommunications towers in an area in Al-Jawf along Yemen’s northern border with Saudi Arabia. Citing a local source, the report said “four workers” at the telecommunications facilities were killed.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia on the reported strikes, and the casualties could not be independently verified, Xinhua news agency reports.

The reported strikes came amid a sharp escalation in conflict between the Houthi group and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces.

Earlier Sunday, the Houthis said Saudi warplanes had carried out 28 airstrikes over the previous 24 hours across the northern province of Al-Jawf, southwestern Taiz and the oil-rich northeastern province of Marib.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement on Sunday (local time) that F-15 and Typhoon fighter jets operating from the Saudi air bases of Khamis Mushait and Taif carried out the strikes in Yemen’s southwestern Taiz, northeastern oil-rich Marib, and northern Al-Jawf provinces.

Sarea put the cumulative number of airstrikes since the latest escalation began at 760.

Saudi Arabia has not immediately commented on the latest figures.

Fierce fighting also continued on Sunday in southwestern Yemen, where the Houthis seized the Red Sea port city of Mocha on September 10, before advancing south to capture Dhubab and Mayyun Island in the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait a day later. Government forces are now trying to halt further Houthi advances along the mountainous approaches to the key waterway.

Yemen’s conflict began 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. The latest Houthi advance has marked the sharpest escalation since a UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted major hostilities.

IANS