Houthi attack on Yemeni port city kills 8, government official says amid strained truce

Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired missiles at the Yemeni port city of Mokha on Friday, killing eight people, the country’s internationally recognized government said, as the Iran-backed group’s affiliated news agency Saba reported that it had claimed a separate drone attack on an Aramco refinery in southern Saudi Arabia the day before.

Amid the escalation in fighting between the Houthis and the Yemeni government’s Saudi backers, United Nations officials warned the Yemeni civil war could return in full force amid near-famine conditions.

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A Yemeni government official said the Houthis “fired five missiles at commercial ships unloading at the port” in Mokha, setting two ships on fire.

Two security personnel were among the eight killed, the official said.

The Houthis did not immediately comment on the attack, but confirmed that they were responsible for a Thursday drone strike in Saudi Arabia.

“A military source confirmed that the Yemeni Armed Forces targeted an Aramco refinery in the Jizan region using two drones, achieving a precise hit by the grace of God,” Saba reported, referring to Houthi forces.

The agency reported that the source said the strike was a response to a Saudi “violation of Yemeni airspace and the country’s sovereignty in the Saada and Hajjah governorates.”

The source said the Houthis would “respond decisively to any violation of the country’s sovereignty or any act of aggression targeting the nation,” according to Saba.

Saudi Arabia did not immediately comment on the report.

In another incident, a rebel military source said the group also attacked a second Saudi Aramco site some 300 kilometers (around 186 miles) away from Jizan, in Najran “by means of a drone, and the operation achieved its objective.”

Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year to prop up the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

A UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted major fighting, despite expiring six months later. Efforts to turn the truce into a lasting political settlement have stalled, with the 2022 truce appearing to collapse over the past month as fighting between Iran and regional US allies flared.

On Sunday, the Houthis said they had struck an oil facility on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast in response to incursions by drones from the Gulf monarchy into northwest Yemen.

The Houthis had on July 20 announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea in response to what the rebels described as a Saudi siege of Yemen, an allegation Riyadh denies.

A Saudi-led coalition responded to the blockade with air strikes on what Riyadh said were Houthi military facilities in the port city of Hodeidah linked to threats against commercial shipping.

The Houthi naval blockade complemented Iran’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, which has become a central flashpoint between Washington and Tehran in efforts to end the war that the US and Israel launched on Iran on February 28.

Hans Grundberg, the special United Nations envoy to Yemen, said Thursday that the country faces its most serious threat of a return to large-scale war since the 2022 truce, and that Houthi attacks on commercial vessels risked drawing Yemen into wider regional confrontation.

Grundberg told the UN Security Council that military activity had intensified along Yemen’s frontlines. Recent Houthi attacks in the regions of Marib, Hadramawt, Mocha and elsewhere had caused military and civilian casualties, he said.

The envoy called on the parties in Yemen’s conflict to immediately de-escalate and work towards a robust ceasefire, and said attacks and threats against shipping as well as cross-border attacks must stop.

He said a negotiated “off-ramp” remained possible and urged countries with influence over the parties to steer Yemen back towards negotiations.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher also told the council that more than half of Yemen’s population was suffering acute food insecurity, while 6 million people were at “Emergency” levels of food deprivation bordering on famine.

Both Grundberg and Fletcher called for the release of 73 UN personnel detained by the Houthis, along with workers from non-governmental organizations, civil society and diplomatic missions.

Grundberg added that preparations to free more than 1,600 conflict-related detainees agreed in May were moving slowly and could be derailed by the wider escalation.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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