Yemeni government forces launch attacks on youth movement targets, conflict intensifies

(Central News Agency, Sana'a, comprehensive foreign news report on the 4th) Yemeni government forces said today that they have launched attacks on Houthi youth movement (Houthi) targets across the country, further intensifying the conflict in one of the world's poorest war-torn countries and in the wider region.

Agence France-Presse reported that military spokesman Majid al-Nuzaili said the armed forces launched strikes in the capital Sanaa, Saada province, one of the strongholds of the youth movement, and the southwestern province of Taiz.

After years of calm, Yemen plunged into civil war again in July, with a youth movement backed by Iran that controls much of northwestern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, fighting against the internationally recognized Yemeni government backed by Saudi Arabia.

The Yemeni government, based in Aden, controls much of the country's south and east, which is larger but far less populated.

The strike came hours after a youth movement claimed it attacked an oil facility near the Saudi capital, with AFP reporters at the scene seeing flames and thick smoke. The youth movement also accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out dozens of attacks on Sanaa.

Reuters reported that the youth movement said on Thursday it had attacked an Aramco facility in the Saudi capital Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones, saying the attack was in retaliation for Saudi attacks on Sana'a and other provinces.

A witness told Reuters that earlier today, large amounts of thick smoke and violent flames were visible near a Saudi Aramco facility in Riyadh.

Saudi authorities did not immediately confirm that Aramco facilities had been attacked, and Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The warring sides have continued to attack each other since the youth movement took control of the entire stretch of Yemen's Red Sea coast and Bab al-Mandab in a lightning offensive last month.