Yemen fighting intensifies on Red Sea coast as Houthis strike Saudi border

Fighting in Yemen intensified on Sunday as government forces launched attacks on Iran-backed Houthi rebels along the Red Sea, while the Houthis fired into neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which backs Yemen's internationally recognised government.

The escalation came days after government forces suffered what officials called a "painful" setback, losing the port city of Mokha and an island on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The renewed fighting has also deepened the humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations saying more than 82,000 people have been displaced since the start of September.

The Yemeni government said it would send more forces to the Red Sea coast after the recent losses. Sultan al-Arada, a member of the ruling presidential council, described the collapse of government forces in Mokha and other parts of Yemen's west coast as "painful and regrettable". In a televised interview aired late on Saturday, he said the forces "are currently regrouping and will return to the battle in one form or another."

On Sunday, the Yemeni military said it had carried out airstrikes on Houthi positions in Mokha, the coastal town of Dhubab and other areas in Taiz province. The Houthis also reported strikes by Saudi-backed forces in Taiz, along with artillery shelling in Saada, their stronghold on Yemen's northern border with Saudi Arabia.

Saudi authorities sounded sirens on Sunday afternoon in the southern city of Abha and in Khamis Mushait province, asking residents to take shelter from possible incoming fire. Both areas have been repeatedly attacked by the Houthis in recent weeks. The Houthis said they had used drones and missiles to target Saudi Arabia, including a military base just across the border with Yemen, though their military spokesperson Brig Gen Yahya Saree gave no evidence and did not say when the attack took place.

Saudi civil defence said overnight that a projectile fell in another area near the border with Yemen along the Red Sea, injuring two people and damaging a mosque and several other buildings. The Saudi statement blamed the Houthis. Saudi Arabia did not announce any new attacks on Houthi targets.

The Houthis have been targeting Saudi oil infrastructure and shipping in the Red Sea as part of what they describe as a blockade. Although the group has said it does not intend to threaten other countries' commercial shipping, markets have remained wary and oil prices have risen again.

The National Resistance, a government-allied force that had controlled coastal areas, said more than 500 government fighters had been killed on the west coast over the past four weeks, in its first full casualty update. It said about 1,500 others had been wounded in fighting since August 9. The force also said more than 1,000 Houthis had been killed in Hodeida and Taiz provinces. A Houthi spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

As the front shifted, residents described chaotic scenes while fleeing. A woman who left the town of Khawkha in Hodeida province shortly before it was captured said a mortar shell landed nearby as she escaped in the middle of the night. "I saw with my own eyes cars and buses burning, and bodies of children and women were lying on the road in a horrific scene," said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear for her and her family's safety.

People fleeing the Houthi advance told The Associated Press that they saw government forces pulling back and telling civilians to run. A senior Yemeni government official said the forces would return to the Red Sea coast and fight back.

The United Nations migration agency said on Sunday that more than 82,000 people in Yemen had been displaced since the beginning of September. "The displaced people are in a very bad condition," said Ahmad al-Masawi, director of the Al Salam camp in the southern port city of Aden. "They left their homes quickly without any clothing or anything. They are crammed in camps, houses and even on roads."

Among those at the camp was Hussein Haydara, who sat outside a shelter in a white undershirt while his children waited to be assigned a tent. He said he was worried about how far the shelter was from schools, hospitals and markets, and how the family would survive in the coming weeks or months. Haydara had fled his home in Hodeida once before, when the Houthis took over in 2015, but said this time was worse. "With the first displacement, we had time to plan things but this time we were forced to escape all of a sudden. One could hardly take their children and the lightest stuff possible," he said.

The Houthi advance has also brought the fighting close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, placing the group about 32 km from the US military base in Djibouti across the water. Djibouti is already receiving displaced Yemenis making the dangerous crossing, with the International Organisation for Migration saying more than 2,000 Yemenis have arrived there. Djibouti's Economy and Finance Minister Ilyas M Dawaleh said on X that the navy, coast guard and other specialised agencies were carrying out rescues and providing emergency help.

Yemen, home to more than 40 million people, now faces the risk of another civil war after a 2022 ceasefire had largely reduced fighting. The latest clashes, the pressure on Red Sea shipping and oil infrastructure, and the growing displacement underline how quickly the conflict is widening again.