After the Houthis launched ballistic missiles and armed drones into Saudi Arabia, notably targeting Aramco oil installations in Jeddah, the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said it struck military targets in the capital Sanaa.
Despite efforts by the US and the UN to broker a ceasefire in the seven-year-old war, which has resulted in a terrible humanitarian crisis, the tit-for-tat bloodshed has increased considerably in recent months.
The coalition carried out “precise strikes on legitimate military targets in Sanaa” on Tuesday, and hit Houthi sites in Marib and Jouf in the previous 24 hours, according to a coalition statement.
Earlier, a Houthi military official said the group launched 25 armed drones and fired six ballistic missiles at Saudi targets, including an Aramco oil complex in Jeddah and the Saudi defence ministry in Riyadh.
Late Monday, the alliance said one ballistic missile was intercepted over Riyadh, where locals reported hearing loud explosions, and two armed drones fired from Yemen were destroyed.
There were no reports of injuries or major damage as a result of the Houthi attacks, which attacked the King Fahad air base in the Taif region, as well as military sites in Riyadh and the city’s airport, according to the official.
The Houthis have increased cross-border attacks as the coalition ramps up airstrikes on Sanaa and gas-rich Marib, which have become the focal point of the conflict this year and claimed the lives of thousands of combatants from both sides.
Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of sending missiles to the Houthis, while UN experts have found that some of the weaponry have technical similarities to Iranian-made weapons. According to the Houthis, they make their own weapons.
After the Houthis pushed the internationally recognised government out of Sanaa, the coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, and has brought Yemen dangerously close to famine.
