The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said its air defences had intercepted a Houthi missile, even as heavy fighting continued along key front lines between the armed group and forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki said in a statement on Monday that defences “intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile” aimed at Saudi Arabia’s southern region. Earlier, he said a drone launched toward the same area on Sunday evening had also been shot down.
Saudi civil defence alerts and public warnings
On Monday, the Saudi Civil Defence authority issued warnings of “potential danger” for the city of Abha and the provinces of Khamis Mushait, Taif and Najran. The alerts were later lifted.
Also read: Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted Houthi missiles, drones · Saudi-led coalition says it struck Houthi missile sites
The authority also told residents not to film, publish or share information about missile and drone attacks.
Strike claims in Hodeidah and the Red Sea coast
A media outlet affiliated with the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, reported that seven people were wounded in coalition air strikes on Hodeidah, on the Red Sea coast. Four people were hurt in attacks on the Ras Isa port dock, while three others were injured in a strike on an oil company site in the Bajil district of the governorate, according to Houthi media.
The coalition did not comment on those reports.
The clashes come as government forces try to win back positions from the Iran-aligned Houthis in the strategically important northern governorate of al-Jawf. Yemeni army spokesman Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nazili said on Sunday evening that government forces carried out 1,272 “targeting operations” against Houthi fighters, fortifications and weapons supplies within 24 hours.
Al-Nazili added that operations were also underway in neighbouring Marib and al-Bayda to the south. Government forces, he said, had killed roughly 500 Houthi fighters and destroyed or disabled nearly 170 vehicles, pieces of equipment or heavy weaponry. The claims could not be independently verified.
Taiz siege deepens humanitarian strain
In southwest Yemen, the Houthis continue to besiege the city of Taiz, blocking the entry of food, fuel and medical supplies. Authorities warn that the situation is becoming a growing humanitarian crisis.
Taiz Governor Nabil Shamsan called for urgent help for the city’s struggling health facilities. He said 120 health centres had stopped operating and another 66 were close to shutting down since the Houthis cut off supply routes to the city in early October.
Nour al-Din al-Mansouri, a member of the committee facilitating the work of the Taiz Siege Affairs Office, said at least 23 trucks had been damaged or overturned over the past two weeks while seeking alternative routes into the city. Taiz is Yemen’s third-largest city, home to about one million of the country’s roughly 43 million people.
Full-scale fighting resumed in September, when the Houthis made crucial gains that tightened their grip on the Red Sea coast. Last month, the government launched a campaign called Operation Dawn of Yemen to recapture Houthi-held sites and restore its control over other territory held by the group, which seized the capital Sanaa in 2014.
