A devastating wave of missile and drone strikes carried out by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen has claimed the lives of at least 58 troops aligned with the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government, marking one of the deadliest single days of conflict in the country’s civil war in four years, a senior military source confirmed Thursday.
The lethal assault comes as Yemen is increasingly drawn into the expanding regional conflict centered on escalating tensions between the US-Israeli bloc and Iran, with Houthi forces ramping up attacks on both Yemeni government positions and neighboring Saudi Arabia, a key American ally and primary backer of Yemen’s official administration.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree stated that the strikes targeted government military outposts in retaliation for what the rebels claim is a Saudi-backed military buildup by government forces in contested regions. Initial casualty reports from medical sources had put the death toll at 38, but an updated figure from an anonymous military source confirmed 58 troops killed, with dozens more wounded.
A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted that Thursday’s coordinated attacks on multiple military camps represent the worst single loss of life for government forces since 2022. Yemen’s defense ministry issued a brief statement following the strikes, affirming that the country’s armed forces would respond to the assault “at the appropriate place and time.”
The escalation of violence spilled across Yemen’s northern border into Saudi Arabia on Thursday, with Saudi officials confirming that Houthi cross-border attacks wounded 11 civilians in the southern Saudi region of Najran. Coalition spokesperson Major General Turki al-Malki told the official Saudi Press Agency that the wounded casualties included seven Saudi citizens, one Yemeni, two Egyptians, and one Pakistani national.
Saudi Arabia has led a regional military coalition supporting Yemen’s government against Houthi forces since the conflict escalated in 2015. Al-Malki condemned the rebels for carrying out “indiscriminate shelling against civilian objects” and reaffirmed that coalition forces would continue all necessary measures to protect civilian populations on both sides of the border.
Houthi forces have significantly increased provocations against Saudi Arabia over the past month, amplifying regional chaos that followed the eruption of open US-Iran hostilities in late February. The coordinated strikes Thursday hit three key government positions: a major military camp in the al-Ruwaik district of Yemen’s central Marib province, and two additional camps in the Al-Abr and Al-Wadiah areas of Hadramawt governorate, located near the Saudi border.
One of the deadliest single strikes hit troops during their morning formation at the Marib province camp, leaving “at least 45 personnel killed and wounded,” according to a military source who requested anonymity for security reasons. Saree confirmed Al-Ruwaik, al-Thaniyah, and al-Abr as targeted locations, and warned that Houthi forces remain “prepared to confront any escalation” from government and coalition forces.
Yemen has been mired in full-scale conflict for more than a decade, after Houthi forces seized the capital Sanaa and much of the country’s populous northern region in 2014, forcing the internationally recognized government into exile and later into control of most of southern Yemen. The conflict, which has already killed hundreds of thousands of people through direct fighting and humanitarian crisis, created what the United Nations has long called the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
A UN-negotiated truce brokered in 2022 largely froze frontline fighting, and the truce agreement broadly held even after its official expiration. That fragile calm collapsed last month, however, as Houthi forces allowed an Iranian plane to land directly in Sanaa in a move that violated truce terms, triggering escalating tit-for-tat strikes. The rebels later announced a self-declared maritime blockade of Saudi ports and began attacking Saudi commercial tankers. Just last month, Houthi strikes killed 16 government-aligned troops south of the strategic port city of Hodeidah, two medical officials confirmed to AFP.