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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Around a dozen people, including seven Saudis, were injured in attacks carried out by the Iran-aligned Houthis - formally known as the Ansarullah movement - in Yemen, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's internationally recognized government (IRG) said Friday, as new reports warn the group could launch coordinated attacks on Saudi Arabia alongside Iraqi armed factions.
"Eleven civilians were injured in [Saudi Arabia's southwestern] Najran province, including seven Saudi nationals - among them a woman and a 4-year-old child who suffered second-degree burns - one Yemeni, two Egyptian, and one Pakistani national," Major General Turki al-Malki said in a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA), attributing the casualties to Thursday's Houthi attacks.
He added that the Houthis "carried out terrorist attacks using indiscriminate projectiles targeting civilian objects, constituting a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and its customary rules through the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian objects."
The coalition's Joint Forces Command "will continue to take deterrent measures against these terrorist attacks to ensure the protection of citizens," Malki affirmed.
The remarks came shortly after the Houthis said they had "conducted a large-scale and precise military operation," using "ballistic missiles and drones" to target the al-Wadi'ah border region, which includes the main crossing connecting Saudi's Najran to Yemen's eastern Hadhramaut province.
The Iran-backed group's military Spokesperson Yahya Saree added that the Houthis also struck alleged Saudi positions in Hadhramaut's al-Abr district, as well as the al-Ruwaik and al-Thaniyah areas near Yemen's central Marib province.
Saree claimed the attacks resulted in "the death and injury of hundreds" of Saudi-affiliated forces, as well as "the destruction of a large number" of Saudi positions and vehicles. He warned against "the consequences of any escalation" while vowing to continue what he called "the siege for siege equation, until the embargo on our country is lifted."
The latest attacks are part of a broader escalation that began in mid-July, when the Houthis launched a "ballistic" missile attack on Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia, claiming it was in response to the Aden-based IRG's airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport's runway - reportedly aimed at preventing a flight from Iran carrying a Houthi delegation from landing.
The Houthis, in the same period, declared a "maritime embargo" against Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, in response to what they described as a 12-year siege by Riyadh "on our ports and airports by land, sea, and air" since the onset of the Yemen war - a claim Saudi Arabia has categorically denied.
As the Iran-backed group controls Yemen's western coastline, the blockade primarily targets the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea. It comes at a time when Riyadh's alternative Gulf routes are also facing disruptions near the Strait of Hormuz, due to maritime restrictions imposed by the Houthis' Iranian allies, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Importantly, the developments come amid reports that the Houthis and Iraqi armed groups, under IRGC supervision, "could soon launch coordinated attacks on Saudi civilian sites including energy infrastructure, ports and airports," a senior Saudi official told Reuters on Friday, citing findings from "Saudi, U.S. and other Middle Eastern countries' intelligence."
The report coincided with a call from a senior Iraqi Shiite politician and head of an influential armed group, who urged the Iran-aligned Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) to delay "any response" to recent US-Saudi strikes on affiliated positions in Iraq, as the deadline set by the group in its ultimatum to the Iraqi government arrived on Friday.
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