The China Mail - Saudi-led coalition and Houthis trade strikes as Yemen conflict deepens

More than 50 attacks targeted several regions in Yemen, including the flashpoint areas of Taiz and Hodeida, the scene of fierce clashes between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government, the rebels said.

"It's a catastrophe, and the attacks are ongoing," said Mohammed Khudairi, one of nearly 20,000 people who fled the fighting, according to the International Organization for Migration.

"We managed to leave, but others remain trapped there," he said at a displacement camp of wood-and-straw huts near Khokha, on the Red Sea coast.

The latest salvos in Yemen's previously dormant conflict come a day after the Iran-backed Houthis set oil sites ablaze and wounded 73 in their heaviest missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia in years.

The Saudi-led military coalition said the Iran-backed group had launched fresh attacks on the kingdom's south on Wednesday as the Houthis reported dozens of incoming salvoes from the kingdom.

The rebels' Al-Masirah TV channel reported on Wednesday the toll from Saudi strikes on a prison days earlier had climbed to 32 dead and seven injured as rescue and recovery efforts continued.

The fighting comes against the backdrop of the Middle East war, which erupted in late February with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

- 'Ultimate objective' -

The Middle East war has sucked in Yemen, the energy-rich Gulf and others across the region while roiling the world economy, as oil prices returned to $100 a barrel on Wednesday.

The fighting in Yemen has killed more than 500 people since the Houthis launched a major offensive last week to seize territory around the Bab al-Mandab strait, gateway to the Red Sea shipping route.

The rebels, who have been attacking Saudi oil tankers, are trying to tighten their squeeze on the shipments, analysts say -- a lifeline for exports after Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Saudi-led coalition's spokesman Turki al-Maliki saidthe Houthis "launched several ballistic missiles and drones toward the cities of Khamis Mushait, Abha, and Jizan", without mentioning any casualties as a result of the attacks.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree had earlier said that "during the past 12 hours, the Saudi enemy's air force conducted 54 airstrikes targeting the provinces of Al-Jawf, Marib, Taiz, Hodeida and Saada".

Footage released by the Iran-backed group showed what it said were attacks on Saudi-backed forces on Al-Jawf province's frontlines, with missiles heard flying overhead before impact, followed by flaming wreckage.

Analysis by the Institute for the Study of War said the city of Hodeida, held by the Houthis, could be the "ultimate objective" of the Saudi-backed forces.

- 'Dangerous escalation' -

The Red Sea port is "critical to both Houthi civilian and military goods, and its loss would be a significant setback for the Houthis", a report published by the institute said.

On Tuesday, Saudi authorities vowed to respond to the Houthi attacks, saying they caused fires and temporary shutdowns at oil sites.

The Houthis triggered the return to hostilities in July, when they let an Iranian plane land in defiance of Saudi control of Yemeni airspace.

The government retaliated by striking the airport, an attack the rebels blamed on its sponsor, Saudi Arabia.

The ongoing exchanges risk returning Yemen to a conflict that left hundreds of thousands of people dead and sparked one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The Houthis, after seizing Yemen's capital and forcing out the internationally recognised government, fought a Saudi-led coalition from 2015 until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire in 2022.

W.Tam--ThChM