Dozens of Yemeni government troops have been killed in major Houthi attacks, government sources said on Thursday.
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis said they fired drones and missiles on troops linked to Saudi Arabia.
The attacks, which took place in Yemen's Marib and Hadhramaut provinces, are the latest flashpoint after weeks of rising tensions involving the Houthis and Saudi Arabia. They came on the day that a Saudi admiral was appointed commander of a new maritime alliance to protect the Red Sea.
The Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group attacked camps belonging to what it described as the Saudi-backed First and Third Emergency Divisions in Yemen, using ballistic missiles and drones.
The Houthis claimed the attack killed and wounded hundreds of fighters and destroyed camps, weapons depots and military vehicles. It urged Yemeni fighters aligned with Saudi Arabia to leave their positions and return home.
They said they launched the operation after detecting what they described as a large Saudi military build-up ahead of an escalation against areas under their control.
The US embassy in Yemen expressed condolences to the families of the soldiers killed. “The Iran-backed Houthis' cowardly attacks represent yet another example of their terrorism against the Yemeni people,” it said in a statement.
The clashes have exacerbated the wider regional conflict. The Houthis are “gradually and steadily escalating on multiple fronts” in a bid to create a situation that makes the country's fragile ceasefire “impossible to continue”, Baraa Shiban, a Yemen expert at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, told The National.
It is a significant gamble by the Houthis but it could serve Iranian interests by increasing regional pressure on the administration of US President Donald Trump, Mr Shiban said.
The latest Houthi operation follows a bout of heavy fighting last month, when Yemen's internationally recognised government said it had repelled a Houthi assault south of the port city of Hodeidah. Dozens of people were reported killed in the most violent clashes in years.
Yemeni State Minister Waleed Al Qudaimi said at that time that the attacks killed at least 15 government personnel in the battle after what he described as a “heroic confrontation” that left more than 50 Houthi rebels dead and dozens wounded.
Saudi Arabia supports the Yemeni government. Conflict with the Houthis lessened following an agreement that was signed in 2022, but the rebels have escalated attacks against Saudi ships in the Red Sea and Saudi oil facilities in recent weeks.
The Houthis say the attacks are in response to Saudi Arabia's “blockade” of Houthi-controlled areas, including ports and Sanaa International Airport.
Saudi Arabia has responded with air strikes on what it said were Houthi military facilities and said it would protect commercial shipping, accusing the Houthis of serving foreign agendas.
The escalation has threatened to bring back war to Yemen, where fighting killed hundreds of thousands of people after the Houthis stormed the capital, Sanaa, in 2014. This prompted Saudi Arabia to intervene at the head of an Arab coalition.
Saudi Arabia has recently launched an international maritime alliance to protect the Red Sea and the Bab Al Mandeb – which is essential for Saudi exports – from Houthi attacks.
On Thursday, the Saudi Defence Ministry announced that Maj Gen Abdullah Al Shehri had been appointed commander of the alliance.
