Yemen government says Houthi missiles kill at least four civilians in port city｜Arab News Japan
- Attacks follow rise in hostilities between Houthi militia and Yemen’s internationally recognized government
ADEN: Yemen’s internationally recognized government said the Houthis fired six ballistic missiles at the Red Sea port of Mocha on Friday, killing four civilians, amid an escalation in hostilities between the Iran-aligned group and the government.
The armed forces aligned with the Yemeni government said the attack targeted civilian infrastructure and national assets at the port. Initial reports said four civilians were killed and several fishing boats were set on fire.
The Houthis said they had attacked what they described as military build-ups, weapons and warships in Mocha with a large number of ballistic missiles, destroying boats and weapons.
A Yemeni military source told Al Arabiya that the Houthis launched 44 drones towards the port of Mocha and civilian facilities on the west coast, confirming that the defenses were able to shoot down 15 of them.
The source also said that three out of six attacks by booby-trapped boats targeting the port of Mocha were thwarted, adding that some of those attacks attempted to target an oil tanker near the Bab El-Mandab Strait.
The source reported dozens of drone attacks were carried out on Houthi positions on the western coast, coinciding with continued artillery shelling of the group’s positions on the western fronts of Taiz.
The attacks follow a rise in hostilities between the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
The escalation comes at a time of heightened regional tensions over the US-Israeli war on Iran, where the Houthis have emerged as a key front, raising the prospect of a return to large-scale conflict in Yemen.
On July 20, the Houthis announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. A Saudi-led coalition responded with air strikes on what it said were Houthi military facilities in the port city of Hodeidah linked to threats against commercial shipping.
Yemen has been engulfed by conflict since the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year. Major fighting largely subsided under a UN-brokered truce in 2022, but efforts to secure a lasting political settlement have stalled.
* With Reuters