The Houthis announce an attack on a Saudi military base in Najran and the fighting escalates in Yemen

The Ansar Allah group in Yemen (the Houthis) announced on Sunday that it had attacked, with drones and missiles, a military base in Najran, southern Saudi Arabia, in what it described as a “qualitative military operation.”

The Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, wrote on the X platform that the attack on the base in the Saudi town of Sharurah targeted “weapons stores and command and control rooms, which manage the aggression against our country and our people.”

The spokesman indicated the use of "a large batch of ballistic missiles and drones, and the hit was accurate and direct," as he put it, but without specifying when the attack occurred.

The Saudi Civil Defense said in a statement on Saturday that a projectile fired by the Houthis injured two people in the Jazan region and damaged several buildings, including a mosque, but Riyadh has not yet commented on the allegations of the recent Houthi attack.

Fighting has escalated in Yemen for more than a week, between the Houthis allied with Iran and the forces of the internationally recognized Yemeni government supported by Riyadh, which also resulted in mutual attacks between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia.

The Yemeni government announced the implementation of air strikes against Houthi sites in various regions.

She said in a statement, on Saturday, that "the Armed Forces aircraft targeted with three air strikes the sites and barracks of the terrorist Houthi group, in the Black Hill and Jabal al-Moneim on the Dhabab Front."

It added that its forces "destroyed military equipment and eliminated Iranian-backed Houthi fighters, in strikes on the coastal city of Mokha, which the rebels took control of this week."

During a meeting in the interim capital, Aden, on Saturday, the Yemeni Council of Ministers described the military escalation launched by the Houthi group as representing a “widespread and dangerous escalation” that goes beyond the Yemeni arena, warning of its repercussions on national security, regional stability, and the security of waterways.

The Houthi group completed its control of the western coast of Yemen on the Red Sea last Friday. It also took control of the four islands in the Bab al-Mandab region, a vital maritime shipping corridor whose importance has increased for Saudi Arabia as a corridor for exporting its oil, since Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz after the outbreak of war between it and Washington.

On the other hand, the military spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, reported that, “During the past 48 hours, Saudi enemy aircraft launched 129 air strikes on areas under rebel control.”

He explained that the raids targeted the governorates of "Taiz, Ma'rib, Al-Hudaydah, Al-Jawf, and Saada" in Yemen, stressing that "these air strikes will not pass without response and punishment."

The conflict in Yemen began in 2014, when the Houthis launched an attack on government forces, during which they took control of large areas of the country, including the capital, Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to support government forces.

The United Nations International Organization for Migration reported on Saturday that at least 76,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since last July.

The organization warned, in a statement, of "a displacement crisis that is worsening at a rapid pace in Yemen and developing hour after hour."

On Saturday, the Djibouti authorities announced that about 1,400 people had fled from Yemen to Djibouti.