Houthi missile and drone attacks kill at least 58 Yemeni soldiers.
Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen killed at least 58 Yemeni soldiers in missile and drone attacks on August 6, marking one of the bloodiest days in the country's four-year civil war.
The attacks occurred as Yemen became increasingly embroiled in the US-Israel conflict with Iran, with rebel forces escalating attacks targeting both government forces and neighboring Saudi Arabia, a key US ally and supporter of the internationally recognized Yemeni government.
The increasingly complex regional situation has prompted Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan to seek closer security ties, with the three Muslim-majority nations preparing to sign a joint defense agreement in Jeddah on August 7th.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the rebels attacked government positions with ballistic missiles and drones in response to what they alleged was a military buildup backed by neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Yemen's Ministry of Defense said in a statement that its armed forces would respond to the attacks "at the right time and place."
The escalation spilled across the border on August 6, when Saudi Arabian officials said Houthi attacks had injured 11 civilians in the southern Najran region.
Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry spokesman, Major General Turki al-Malki, said that among the injured were seven Saudi citizens, one Yemeni, two Egyptians, and one Pakistani. Al-Malki accused rebel forces of carrying out "indiscriminate shelling of civilian targets" and stated that coalition forces would continue to take measures to protect civilians.
Rebel forces have escalated their actions against Saudi Arabia since last month, adding to the chaos in the region since the US-Iran war broke out on February 28. Yemen, a country embroiled in a civil war that has lasted more than a decade, was drawn into the Middle East conflict last month when Tehran-backed Houthi rebels broke their 2022 ceasefire agreement with the Saudi-backed government. The Houthis have been fighting the government since 2014 in a conflict that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands and caused a severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The rebels control Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and much of the densely populated north, while the government controls much of the south.
