Houthis kill 58 troops in Yemen, wound 11 civilians in attack on Saudi Arabia
An attack by Yemen’s Houthis on southern Saudi Arabia wounded 11 civilians on Thursday, a military official said, as the kingdom warned that coordinated attacks by the Houthis and Iran-backed Iraqi militias were imminent.
Major General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government, said early Friday the attack in southern Najran Province injured seven Saudis, one Yemeni, two Egyptians and one Pakistani national. The victims included a 4-year-old child who suffered second-degree burns.
Maliki accused the Iran-aligned Houthis of indiscriminately shelling civilian areas in violation of international humanitarian law and said the coalition would continue taking all necessary measures to protect civilians.
There was no immediate comment from the Houthis or Iran on the coalition’s statement, as the five-month-old US-Israeli war with Iran has complicated Saudi Arabia’s security calculations.
Iran has attacked the kingdom because it hosts US military facilities. Meanwhile, Riyadh’s decade-old conflict with the Tehran-aligned Houthis has become increasingly entangled with the wider war, as Houthi actions, such as a Red Sea blockade that has disrupted Saudi oil exports, have raised the stakes of the broader regional confrontation.
A senior Saudi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saudi, US and other Middle Eastern countries’ intelligence found that the Houthis and Iraqi militias under the supervision of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could soon launch coordinated attacks on Saudi civilian sites including energy infrastructure, ports and airports.
The senior Saudi official said the reported........
