Yemen's internationally recognized government forces on August 11 accused Houthi rebels of carrying out a series of new ballistic missile attacks targeting the Red Sea port city of al-Makha and residential areas in the central city of Marib. Yemeni military officials did not disclose whether the Monday attacks caused any casualties.
The attacks came just one day after a Houthi missile killed at least seven people and wounded 30 others in al-Makha, also known as Mocha. Previous airstrikes had already caused significant damage to the city's port area.
Also on Monday, a Houthi drone attack killed two Yemeni government soldiers and wounded seven others in the south-central province of Shabwa, according to local media reports.
In a series of posts on social media platform X, Yemeni forces said they had targeted Houthi rebels and their bases in the eastern part of al-Jawf province, the northwestern province of Saada, and the al-Tibas area in central Marib province.
The back-and-forth attacks are considered the bloodiest in years in Yemen's civil war and mark a major escalation in the conflict, which reignited following the US- and Israel-led war against Iran that began on February 28.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in September 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in March 2015 in support of the government.
The conflict, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, reached a stalemate, and the warring parties agreed to a ceasefire in April 2022, ending major nationwide fighting.
However, violence reignited on July 13 with a Saudi airstrike on the runway of Sanaa airport, preventing an Iranian plane carrying a high-level Houthi delegation from landing.
Following the airstrike, the Houthis attacked Abha airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia and declared a blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea. They also targeted Saudi vessels and oil facilities, further disrupting the global economy.
The Saudi-led coalition also launched airstrikes on Hodeidah and Kamaran, Yemen's largest Red Sea island, both controlled by the Houthis. The coalition also reinforced troops along frontlines in Yemen in preparation for a ground offensive against the Houthis.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has called for restraint. "Yemen today faces a higher risk of a new large-scale conflict than at any time since the UN-mediated ceasefire in April 2022," UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg warned on Friday.
This escalation, he said, risks "undermining the gains of the 2022 ceasefire... while dragging the country into a broader regional confrontation with devastating consequences for the people."
