Houthis say they struck Saudi base at Sharurah with missiles and drones
Yemen Herald News 
SANAA, Yemen — The Houthis said Sunday they attacked a Saudi military base at Sharurah with ballistic missiles and drones, a claim Saudi Arabia has not confirmed.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced the operation in a statement posted on X.
Saree said the strikes targeted weapons depots and command-and-control rooms at the base, which lies in Saudi Arabia’s southern Najran province. He said the missiles and drones hit their targets.
He described the attack as a response to what he called continued Saudi attacks on Yemen. He warned of larger strikes deeper inside Saudi territory if they went on.
Saudi authorities have not commented on the Sharurah claim. No independent confirmation of the strike, or of any damage at the base, has been published. The account rests on Saree’s statement alone, and Yemen Herald could not verify it.
Saudi Civil Defence did report a separate incident a day earlier. It said a projectile fired by the Houthis landed in the al-Tuwal governorate of the Jazan region on Saturday, wounding two people.
A mosque and several buildings were damaged, the agency said. Several vehicles were also damaged.
A civil defence spokesperson called the targeting of civilian objects a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law” and said established emergency procedures had been implemented.
The agency later said the danger had passed in the Khamis Mushait governorate, where a warning had been issued for residents.
On Tuesday the group struck civilian and economic sites in Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran, wounding 73 people, including women and children, according to Saudi accounts.
Saree has said the Houthis would continue what his statement called a “siege for siege” and “escalation for escalation” strategy against Saudi Arabia, which has blockaded Houthi-held areas of Yemen.
The conflict reignited in July after roughly four years of relative calm under a truce brokered by the United Nations.
Houthi forces have taken control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coastline, seizing the port city of Mocha on Thursday as government troops withdrew.
They reached Mayyun Island, also known as Perim, in the Bab al-Mandab Strait on Friday. The takeover was confirmed by a senior military official of Yemen’s internationally recognised government and by a Houthi official, according to The Associated Press.
Mayyun is a volcanic island of about 13 square kilometres that splits the strait into two channels.
Bab al-Mandab is the southern entrance to the Red Sea, with the Suez Canal at its northern end.
The Houthis also control the island of Hanish and the areas surrounding the strait.
The Strait of Hormuz, on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, has been closed to traffic since March.
In 2021 the Saudi-led coalition said it had a presence on Mayyun, after reports of an airbase being built there. The United Arab Emirates ended its involvement in the Yemen conflict at the end of last year and withdrew its troops.
The group has said general shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab is safe from attack, except for vessels linked to Saudi Arabia, which it says it will blockade.
Between November 2023 and mid-2025 the Houthis attacked more than 100 commercial ships in the Red Sea. The group said the vessels were linked to Israel or its allies.
Yemeni government forces have opened new fronts in al-Jawf, Marib and al-Bayda.
Yemeni military media said the air force struck Houthi positions and barracks at Mocha and carried out three airstrikes in the Taiz region. Those claims have not been independently confirmed.
US President Donald Trump said the Houthis had asked Washington not to intervene. “They don’t want to fight us, they let us know,” he told reporters during a visit to Ireland.
More than 500 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in the fighting, according to the International Organization for Migration and local officials.
UN special envoy Hans Grundberg told the Security Council this month that Yemen faces “a new and more dangerous phase of war”. The Council held an emergency session after the fall of Mocha.
Grundberg said the escalation risked drawing in the wider region and carried global repercussions.
The European Union condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and on freedom of navigation, and called for them to stop immediately.
Fighting has spread across the provinces of Taiz, Hodeidah, Marib, al-Jawf and al-Bayda since Sept. 3, the United Nations said. More than 11,400 households have been displaced in that period, according to UN figures.
The International Organization for Migration said Friday that at least 46,000 people had left their homes since the fighting escalated. Residents of Mocha left overnight with what belongings they could carry, the agency said.
About 1,400 people crossed to Djibouti in 24 hours, Djibouti’s economy and finance minister said.
The IOM urged the parties to the conflict to guarantee humanitarian access and the safety of aid workers.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its March 2026 plan that more than 22 million people in Yemen need assistance, and put the number of acutely food insecure at 18.3 million.
It said more than 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely, and recorded 5.2 million internally displaced people.
The plan sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million of those in need.
Saree did not say when the attack on Sharurah took place.
About the Author
