The Houthi militant group said on Friday it had launched a drone and missile attack on a military camp of the internationally recognized government in Yemen, escalating fighting that has threatened to reignite the country’s civil war.
The Iran-backed Houthis said they had attacked “weapons depots, military vehicles and equipment” at the Sahn al-Jinn camp, a base in the northeastern province of Marib that is used by the country’s official armed forces, which are supported by Saudi Arabia.
The Yemeni government did not immediately confirm any damage to military facilities. The Saudi authorities also did not comment on the attack. Yemen’s health ministry, in a statement carried by state media, said that at least two people had been killed and 14 others wounded in Houthi attacks Friday on civilian areas and displacement camps in Marib.
A coalition led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen has been seeking to oust the Houthis and restore the government since the militia seized control of the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.
The government and the Houthis agreed to a cease-fire in 2022. But over the past few weeks, new Houthi-Saudi clashes have risked expanding the conflict into another full-blown war.
The Houthis said that the attack on the military camp had been in response to a Saudi-backed military buildup in Yemen that the group called an escalation of aggression on the country. The group also said that the strikes had been carried out “with a large number of missiles and drones.”
A day earlier, the Yemeni military said that the Houthis had targeted several camps and units of the armed forces in two oil-rich provinces. Those strikes killed at least 17 military personnel, the state news agency said. The Saudi-led military coalition blamed the Houthis for a separate shelling attack in Saudi Arabia, saying that 11 civilians had been injured.
The civil war in Yemen has killed hundreds of thousands of people not only from direct violence, but also because of hunger and disease stemming from the conflict. After the cease-fire in 2022, Saudi Arabia pulled back from its extensive bombing campaign in Yemen, which the kingdom had been reticent to renew.
The latest round of fighting has prompted fears that the truce is nearing collapse, after months of escalating tensions and skirmishes between government and Houthi forces.
The Houthis have also clashed with Saudi Arabia in recent weeks and declared a blockade of Saudi oil shipping last month in the Red Sea, firing on commercial vessels. Since the Houthis announced the blockade, each side has claimed attacks on the other.
Separate from the shipping attacks, the Houthis said they had also targeted crude-oil supplies and transport routes linking Saudi Arabia’s eastern oil fields to the Red Sea hub of Yanbu.
A Saudi-led military coalition has carried out airstrikes in Houthi-held territory for the first time in years.
Shirin Hakim contributed reporting.
