- Houthi rebels launched coordinated drone and missile strikes across three Yemeni provinces, killing at least 30 Saudi-backed soldiers.
- The attack shattered a four-year relative calm after a July incident involving an Iranian plane triggered the ceasefire collapse.
- Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea oil lifeline is now exposed, with Aramco loadings surging past 4 million barrels per day.
- Riyadh is amassing forces for a potential offensive against Al Bayda as a joint defense pact with Turkey and Pakistan nears.
- With Houthis rebuilt and Iranian-supplied, Washington risks being dragged into a second Middle East war.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched a coordinated wave of drone and ballistic missile strikes on Saudi-backed government forces across three Yemeni provinces Thursday, killing at least 30 soldiers and shattering four years of relative calm, after detecting what they described as a buildup of enemy troops preparing for a major offensive.
The attack is among the most serious flare-ups in Yemen since a 2022 UN-mediated truce largely froze the country's devastating civil war. The Houthis struck military camps, weapons depots and vehicles in Marib, Hadramout and other central and eastern provinces, according to rebel military spokesman Yahya Saree, who warned Riyadh against further "escalation." Government sources told Reuters that at least 30 soldiers died, with some reports placing the toll as high as 58. The Houthis claimed "hundreds" of casualties among what they called "Saudi enemy mercenaries."
Later Thursday, the rebels struck Saudi Arabia's southern Najran province, wounding 11 civilians, including a 4-year-old child, according to the Saudi-led coalition.
How the ceasefire collapsed
The renewed hostilities can be traced back to a July 13 incident in which Saudi-backed forces struck the runway of an Iranian Mahan Air plane in Sanaa. The aircraft had arrived days earlier to fly a Houthi delegation to the funeral of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed in the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February. The Houthis blamed Riyadh and declared the ceasefire over.
Within a week, the group announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia and has since claimed responsibility for attacks on eight Saudi-linked vessels. The Saudi-led coalition responded with airstrikes on Houthi sites in Hodeidah province, and the rebels retaliated with attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities. For months, the Houthis had pushed to establish direct Sanaa-Tehran flights, a demand the internationally recognized government opposed as a truce violation.
Saudi Arabia's Red Sea oil lifeline is exposed
With the Strait of Hormuz largely closed because of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, the Red Sea and its Bab al-Mandeb chokepoint have become Saudi Arabia's fallback export corridor. Aramco, the world's largest oil exporter, has rerouted crude to its Red Sea port of Yanbu, where loadings have surged past 4 million barrels a day — quadruple last year's pace, according to tanker-tracking data. Given that oil and petroleum products make up more than three-quarters of the kingdom's exports, a sustained disruption there would hit Saudi Arabia hard.
Saudi Arabia is now bracing for what an official told CNN would be "multiple coordinated attacks" by Houthis and pro-Iranian Iraqi militias, citing intelligence gathered by Saudi, American and regional agencies. The likely targets, the official said, are civilian and economic sites — energy facilities, ports and airports — although no further details were offered.
Riyadh weighs its own offensive
Yemeni sources cited by The Guardian say Riyadh is amassing forces for a possible offensive of its own, by sea and potentially by land, aimed at the Houthi-held governorate of Al Bayda. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are due to meet in Mecca on Friday, where a joint defense pact is expected, CNN reported.
The Houthis, meanwhile, have spent the years since the 2022 truce rebuilding — reinforcing their defenses and expanding domestic drone and missile output with what Western officials call substantial Iranian technical support. The group's earlier attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping during the Gaza war drew U.S., U.K. and Israeli airstrikes before a separate U.S.-Houthi ceasefire in May 2025.
With Riyadh protecting its oil exports and the Houthis flush with Iranian-supplied weapons, neither side has much incentive to stand down — and Washington, already committed to one Middle East war against Iran, risks being drawn into a second one not of its choosing.
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