Houthi attacks kill at least 30 Yemeni troops, escalate war in Yemen

Houthi missile attacks on military camps in Yemen’s Marib and Hadramout provinces killed at least 30 government troops and wounded at least 50 others, reopening one of the war’s most dangerous fronts and rattling security along the Saudi border. Government sources said the death toll could rise as more information came in from the attacked camps.

The deadliest strike hit a government military camp in Hadramout, which Al Jazeera described as the fiercest military escalation in Yemen since 2022. The camps were run by government-aligned forces, including the Emergency Forces, and the attacks were carried out with a mix of missiles and drones. The Houthis said the strikes were retaliation for what they described as a recent Saudi-backed military buildup.

The Saudi-led coalition, which has supported Yemen’s internationally recognized government since 2015, said it would not stand idly by after the attacks but also said it did not want escalation. That warning lands in a conflict that has been frozen and unfreezing for years: Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, Saudi Arabia launched its intervention in March 2015, and a de facto truce in April 2022 halted major fighting between the Houthis and the coalition.

The fallout extended beyond Yemen. Saudi military officials said Houthi attacks injured 11 civilians, including a 4-year-old child, near the border in Najran. The strike sharpened concern that renewed fighting could spill across the Red Sea corridor, where Houthi attacks have already raised alarms about shipping, energy flows and Gulf stability.

The escalation also fed into U.S. political debate over Iran and the region. Sen. Ted Cruz said he advised Donald Trump that the Iranian regime is on the brink of collapse and said Trump should seek regime collapse. Trump has separately warned that he would hold Iran responsible for future Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, adding pressure to a conflict already entangled with wider regional tensions.

Yemen’s war now involves the Houthis, the internationally recognized government and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, making each new offensive harder to contain. The latest attacks showed how quickly the conflict can move from a local battlefield in Marib or Hadramout to the wider security agenda in Riyadh, Washington and the Red Sea.