Saudis pound Yemen, Houthis fire at Saudi, as Middle East war spreads

(REUTERS) -- Saudi warplanes pounded Yemen and Houthi fighters launched drones and missiles at ​Saudi cities, the Iran-backed movement said on Wednesday, after a lightning advance that has extended Tehran's reach in the Middle East war.

 

In a sign of the worsening ‌conflict in a new theatre, the United States tightened its travel warning for Saudi Arabia, banning government employees from travelling within 20 miles of the Yemen border.

 

The Houthis, who since last week have swept through Yemeni towns along the Red Sea coast and seized islands in the Bab el-Mandeb strait at its mouth, released battlefield video overnight of fighters seizing armoured vehicles from Saudi-backed forces. Warplanes flew overhead and huge explosions billowed into the sky ​from desert dunes, the video showed.

 

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had launched fresh drone and missile strikes on the major Saudi Red Sea oil port ​of Yanbu, and at a southern Saudi airbase at Khamis Mushait. He did not say when the strikes had taken place. Both cities were ⁠among a wide range of locations where Saudi Arabia announced alerts on Tuesday, although there were no similar announcements on Wednesday.

 

Saudi officials and oil company Aramco did not immediately respond to ​emails seeking comment.

 

Earlier, Saree said the Houthis had also shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet. No immediate evidence was presented of that incident.

Saree said the Saudis had carried out as many as ​450 air strikes on Yemen this week. Officials in the Saudi-backed government that controls southern Yemen have acknowledged that their forces and those of Saudi Arabia were conducting air strikes on Houthi positions, though Riyadh itself has not confirmed them.

 

The Houthis have fired repeatedly into Saudi Arabia over the past week causing alarms over cities in the south and west. An attack blamed on Iran-aligned fighters in Iraq last week also knocked out ​Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline, the main route used to divert oil exports from the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

Riyadh said its air defences had shot down a Houthi drone south of Mecca ​on Tuesday before it entered prohibited airspace over the holy city, an attack it said crossed a "red line" of threatening shrines sacred to all Muslims. Houthi spokesperson Saree denied the group had targeted Mecca, and ‌said the Saudi ⁠reports were a set-up for propaganda purposes.

 

Sources told Reuters that U.S. officials had held a meeting with the Houthis over the weekend in Oman, at which the group said it had no intention of attacking American vessels and was committed to a ceasefire reached with the U.S. last year.