Saudi Arabia Issues Alerts Following Houthi Attacks, Iran Denies Involvement In War

(MENAFN- Jordan Times) RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi authorities have lifted warnings of potential danger in four southern cities after a series of attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis heightened security concerns along the Kingdom's border with Yemen.

The Saudi Civil Defence issued alerts on Monday for the southern cities of Najran, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Abha along the border with Yemen before declaring the areas safe.

The Houthis said they fired dozens of drones and missiles, targeting southern Saudi Arabia, including civilian and economic facilities.

The attacks have drawn strong condemnation and expressions of solidarity from Gulf and Muslim organisations as well as Arab and regional governments.

The group, fighting the internationally recognised government, last week seized control of Yemen's Red Sea coast and the Bab Al Mandab Strait, which has become vital as the wider US-Iran war chokes the Strait of Hormuz.

Two people were injured Saturday when a projectile launched by the Houthis struck Saudi Al Tuwal governorate in Jazan, damaging a mosque, several buildings and vehicles, the Riyadh-based Arab News said, citing a statement from Saudi Civil Defence.

The attack followed Houthi strikes earlier in the week on Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran that injured 73 people, including women and children, Arab News said.

The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen and the country's most populous areas, have intensified attacks toward the Kingdom since declaring a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in July, with strikes also targeting Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea.

The Bab Al Mandab waterway has become essential for Saudi oil exports, with Iran continuing to block the Hormuz strait as part of the Middle East war, but the Houthis have declared a maritime blockade on Riyadh.

The renewed fighting in Yemen comes as the wider regional war remains stalemated. On Monday, a proposed meeting between Gulf states and Iran over the future of Hormuz was postponed, with Tehran accusing Riyadh of using Yemen as a "pretext" to delay the talks, AFP reported.

Tehran has long supported the Houthis, a member of its anti-Israel "axis of resistance, including with weapons and technology, but analysts dispute the extent to which Iran is behind the renewed fighting.

"Iran does not interfere in Yemeni affairs," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters on Monday, saying the Houthis are "entirely independent actors who make their decisions based on their own interests".

Iran has previously threatened to open "new fronts", including Bab al-Mandab, and the Houthi offensive has sent oil prices soaring once again, with the lengthy route through the Suez Canal and around Africa now the only secure route for Saudi oil to reach key Asian markets.

300 strikes in five days

Yemen's prolonged civil war had been dormant for four years before bursting back into life in July over an Iranian flight to the capital Sanaa, as it became the latest conflict drawn into the wider regional war.

The Houthis' military spokesman Yahya Saree said Monday that the group's latest strikes targeted "fighter jet hangars, radars, runways, ammunition depots" at King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, in retaliation for airstrikes by Riyadh.

Yemeni government forces on Sunday said they had recaptured positions in the southwestern province of Taiz from Houthi fighters and carried out airstrikes, telling the official Saba news agency they killed at least ten gunmen.

The Houthis, whose heartland is among Yemen's Zaidi Muslims in the country's north, seized the capital Sanaa in 2014 at the outset of the civil war, driving the government to Aden in the south.

On Sunday, the UN's migration agency said the renewed fighting in the Arab world's poorest country had forced 86,000 people to flee their homes, with the number jumping by 10,000 in just a day.

More than 2,000 people had fled across the Bab Al Mandab to reach Djibouti in Africa, the International Organisation for Migration said.

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