Saudi-led coalition says it targeted Houthi missile and drone resources in Yemen
Yemen Herald News 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi-led coalition said it carried out a military operation in Yemen on Sunday against resources it says the Houthi group uses to build ballistic missiles and drones.
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, the coalition spokesman, announced the operation in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.
He described it as a qualitative military operation to neutralise vital resources the group uses to support its war effort.
The operation was carried out on Sunday morning, according to the statement.
Al-Maliki said the coalition acted in response to what he described as continued Houthi attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Yemen and in Saudi Arabia.
He said the group was directing vital resources towards its military capabilities, naming ballistic missiles and drones.
The stated aims included countering threats to Saudi Arabia, to Yemen and to shipping lanes in the southern Red Sea.
“The Terrorist Houthi Militia must cease all hostile and brutal operations against civilians and civilian objects,” al-Maliki said.
He said the group would bear the consequences of its behaviour if it did not stop.
The coalition’s Joint Forces Command said it would continue taking and implementing the operational measures it considered necessary.
The statement named no targets. It identified no facilities, no towns and no governorates.
It gave no casualty figures and no assessment of material damage.
The coalition’s account of the operation rests on al-Maliki’s statement. No independent assessment of what was struck, or of the resulting damage, has been published.
Houthi-affiliated media gave a separate account of strikes in the same period.
Al-Masirah television reported that two strikes hit an oil company station in Bajil district, in the Red Sea governorate of Hodeidah. It said three civilians were wounded there.
The channel reported two further strikes on the Faculty of Medicine at Hodeidah University, with no casualties.
It reported missile attacks on the Al-Dhaher and Haydan districts of Saada governorate.
It also said gunfire wounded a civilian in Shada, a border district of the same governorate.
Houthi-run outlets separately reported three strikes on an oil company station in the city of Dhamar.
Yemen Herald could not independently verify those accounts. Al-Masirah is the only origin that has published the casualty figures, and no second account of them has appeared.
The coalition did not claim the strikes on the oil facilities. Its statement makes no reference to them.
There was no immediate Houthi comment on the announcement itself.
A Houthi military source quoted by the Saba news agency threatened to target facilities belonging to Saudi Aramco.
The source warned investors of possible losses. It urged international airlines to avoid Saudi airspace, except over Mecca and Medina.
The two sides have issued competing tallies through the escalation.
Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, said on Saturday that Saudi Arabia had carried out 66 airstrikes and missile attacks in the preceding 24 hours.
He listed Sanaa, al-Jawf, Taiz, Saada, Hajjah and Lahj, and said civilians including women and children were among the casualties.
Saree put the total number of Saudi strikes since the escalation began at 3,755.
Forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government reported 1,119 attacks on Houthi positions during their current campaign.
They said 427 Houthi fighters had been neutralised. Majed al-Nuzaili, a spokesman for those forces, said 142 military vehicles were damaged or destroyed.
None of those figures has been independently confirmed. Each comes from one of the parties to the fighting.
The coalition has reported a series of interceptions over Saudi territory during the escalation. It said it brought down ballistic missiles over the Eastern Province and a drone over Madinah.
The Houthis denied the Madinah account. Saudi-led forces said on Saturday that they had intercepted a Houthi missile and a drone over the south of the kingdom.
Iran’s IRNA news agency reported a strike that caused a fire at an industrial complex in Dammam. It did not say who carried it out.
The Houthis said 12 people were killed in Saudi strikes on Al-Barah on Thursday. Yemen Herald found no independent account of that toll.
Fighting resumed in July, according to United Nations reporting. More than 1,600 people have been killed since then, and more than 275,000 displaced.
The World Health Organization put the toll from the escalation at 1,677 deaths and 7,395 injuries in figures published last week.
The agency said it drew the figures from the health surveillance systems still operating in the country. It did not attribute the casualties to any party.
A truce agreed in April 2022 had held until this year.
The July breakdown followed the landing of an Iranian aircraft in Sanaa, which the Houthis permitted.
Saudi Arabia had exercised control over Yemeni airspace under the arrangements accompanying the truce.
Government forces began a campaign on Oct. 5 that they named Dawn of Yemen.
Its declared objective is to retake Sanaa, the capital, which the Houthis hold.
Fuel and oil infrastructure has been contested through the war. Both sides treat imports and distribution as a military matter as well as an economic one.
Hodeidah is the main entry point for commercial and relief cargo reaching the north of the country.
The Houthis took Sanaa in September 2014. The coalition began its intervention in March 2015.
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Adel Haddad 
