On Saturday, the Ansar Allah group claimed responsibility for an attack on Camp Al-Nasr and a naval base in the city of Aden, the headquarters of the internationally recognized Yemeni government, after hearing the sound of explosions in the city.
The military spokesman for the group, Yahya Saree, said that the attack targeted military gatherings belonging to Saudi Arabia in the two sites, saying that Saudi officers were supervising their preparation, according to his account.
The group also announced carrying out attacks that it said had targeted, during the past 24 hours, King Khalid airports in Riyadh, Dammam and Najran, the Khamis Mushait air base, and oil facilities in Yanbu and Rabigh, in addition to pumping stations and the oil pipeline extending from eastern to western Saudi Arabia.
For its part, the Saudi-led coalition announced the interception of two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis towards Taif and Yanbu on Saturday.
Al-Masirah TV channel, affiliated with the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) in Yemen, reported that eight people, including six women and a girl, were killed, and more than ten others were injured, in raids that it said Saudi Arabia launched on a cement factory and its workers’ housing in the Hamdan District of Sana’a Governorate.
The group also announced the killing of five members of one family in a raid it accused Saudi Arabia of launching on their home in Hodeidah Governorate.
It also reported that four people were killed and others injured in a raid that it said targeted a house in the Asr Gharbi area in the capital, Sanaa.
The channel added that Saudi Arabia launched a series of raids on Sanaa, and about 20 raids on the Mokha region in western Yemen since Saturday morning.
For its part, the Saudi-led coalition announced, on Saturday, the interception and destruction of three ballistic missiles that it said the Houthis had launched towards Riyadh, Taif and Yanbu, in addition to a drone in the eastern region.
Coalition spokesman Turki Al-Maliki said that air defenses intercepted a missile towards Riyadh at dawn on Saturday, before intercepting two other missiles towards Taif and Yanbu. Agence France-Presse reported that two explosions were heard in the Saudi capital.
The Saudi Civil Defense issued warnings of a potential danger in Mecca, Jeddah, Taif and Yanbu, calling on residents to remain calm and remain inside the buildings, before announcing that the danger had passed minutes later.
These developments come in light of the escalation of attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis on Saudi Arabia since the beginning of October.
Although the group claimed responsibility for a number of attacks, it denied responsibility for other attacks attributed to it by the Saudi-led coalition, including launching drones towards Medina last Wednesday.
On October 16, Tehran denied any role in the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, in response to accusations from Riyadh of encouraging the group to escalate against the Kingdom.
On the diplomatic level, the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt met in Istanbul on Friday to discuss the regional escalation, including the war in Yemen, attacks on Saudi Arabia, and navigation security in the Straits of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed that the participating countries rejected the expansion of the war, stressing the necessity of resorting to diplomacy and dialogue to resolve crises.
His French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, warned that any new escalation between the United States and Iran would have serious repercussions on oil and gas prices, calling on both parties to exercise maximum restraint. The ministers agreed to continue their meetings periodically.
These efforts come in parallel with strengthening Western military support for Saudi Arabia, as French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed, on Wednesday, that his country had deployed military personnel and means to help protect oil installations in Yanbu on the Red Sea, while Britain announced, on Tuesday, the dispatch of Typhoon fighters to participate in defensive missions to protect Saudi airspace from Houthi attacks.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi also announced on Wednesday his country's readiness to defend Saudi territory if asked to do so, ruling out participation in any attack on Yemen.
The United Nations warned on Friday that time is running out to deliver humanitarian aid to the city of Taiz, the third largest city in Yemen, after the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) tightened its siege of the city since the beginning of October, and cut off the road linking it to Aden, the seat of the internationally recognized government.
