Full story
Marib strikes and casualties
Houthis launched multiple missile and drone attacks on Saudi-backed forces and civilian areas in Marib, Yemen, killing two people and injuring 14 others, according to Yemen's SABA news agency and Yemen's state television.
“The strikes resulted in the deaths of two individuals and injuries to 14 others.”
The strikes targeted the Sahn al-Jinn camp and also hit displacement camps and residential areas, while Yemen's air defenses intercepted several drones to prevent further casualties.
In a separate account of the same Thursday attacks, Al Jazeera said Houthi missiles and drones struck military locations inside Yemen and left at least 30 government soldiers dead and 15 others injured in Hadramout and Marib.
The BBC reported that Yemen's defence ministry said ballistic missiles and drones struck several camps in the provinces of Marib and Hadramawt, resulting in the death and injury of a number of Yemeni personnel, with the ministry not giving an exact toll.
Competing claims and voices
Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesperson, claimed in a broadcast statement that the attacks killed “hundreds” and “destroyed a large number of camps and depots,” and he alleged the strikes were launched after Houthi forces “detected a massive Saudi military mobilisation”.
Al Jazeera also quoted Abdul Rahman Saleh, 34, living in Sanaa, saying, “It is no longer a potential threat. It has become a reality.”
The BBC said the defence ministry denounced the attacks as "treacherous" and vowed to "respond to this aggression at an appropriate time and place".
In the same BBC report, the Saudi-led coalition spokesperson said that 11 civilians had been wounded in Najran, with the statement shared to X saying the wounded included seven Saudi nationals, including a woman and a four-year-old child who both suffered second-degree burns.
Escalation risks and next moves
The BBC reported that the Houthis announced a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia on 20 July and began launching missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea, while Saudi Arabia responded with strikes targeting Houthi positions and by forming a new naval coalition.
“exercise restraint and refrain from actions that could lead to further military escalation”
Deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters to "exercise restraint and refrain from actions that could lead to further military escalation," warning that "Renewed fighting risks reversing the hard-won gains made towards reducing violence in the past years," according to the BBC.
Saudi Arabia’s coalition spokesman Major General Turki Al-Malki said the Houthis carried out “indiscriminate shelling in flagrant violation of all customary norms and the international humanitarian law, deliberately targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure,” and warned that the Joint Forces Command of the Coalition would continue deterrent measures.
In a separate statement carried by Al-Manar TV Lebanon, the Yemeni Armed Forces said they would continue to confront escalation with escalation and that they would “targeting Saudi hostile military buildups wherever they may be,” while advising those “deceived among our country’s sons to leave the Saudi enemy’s camps” before it is “too late.”
