CAIRO — Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, announced Saturday that they launched a barrage of missiles and drones toward Saudi Arabia, retaliating against Saudi airstrikes on the strategically important Red Sea city of Hodeida. The attack marks another dangerous escalation in the region as the United States and Iran continue to clash over control of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Houthis’ military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, delivered a prerecorded statement saying the strike was aimed at Aramco facilities — the world’s largest oil company — located in the Red Sea cities of Yanbu and Jizan.
Saudi Arabia’s civil defense agency confirmed that warning alerts went off multiple times in both cities early Saturday morning, though the Kingdom has not issued any further official comment on the matter.
In a notable pause from recent activity, no overnight strikes on Iran were reported — breaking what had been nearly two weeks of consecutive nightly U.S. attacks. Tensions, however, remain extremely high. A spokesperson for Iran’s Health Ministry, Hossein Kermanpour, posted on X Saturday simply stating, “Iran had a peaceful night.”
The situation in the Red Sea continues to threaten global commerce. The Houthis have declared their intention to shut the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to any shipping linked to Saudi Arabia. That strait, located at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, is a critical passage connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Roughly 12% of all global trade — including about a quarter of the world’s container shipping — moves through that narrow waterway.
The current round of hostilities was triggered after the Houthis targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea earlier this week. Saudi Arabia responded with airstrikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeida late Friday, which the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen confirmed early Saturday. According to Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry, the strikes hit the city’s port and the state-run telecommunications corporation, wounding two people.
The Saudi-led coalition pushed back on claims it struck the port, insisting it only hit what it called “legitimate military targets” in Hodeida province that were “linked to threats to commercial vessels in the Red Sea.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, weighed in Saturday through an interview published in the state-run Iran newspaper, calling for “diplomacy and dialogue” to resolve the Yemen conflict rather than “military confrontations.”
U.S. Central Command did not respond to a request for comment, though unlike the 13 previous nights, it announced no new strikes.
The broader conflict has its roots in late February, when the U.S. and Israel struck Iran. A fragile ceasefire that had paused major operations for several weeks has since appeared to collapse. The U.S. accused Iran of attacking three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and responded by striking dozens of Iranian targets. Iran then retaliated by firing on U.S.-allied Gulf Arab nations.
On Friday, the U.S. military fired on a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Oman that attempted to break through its renewed blockade of Iranian ports. Meanwhile, U.S. embassies across the Middle East warned American citizens that options for leaving the region could soon become more limited. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard also advised residents of neighboring countries to distance themselves from bases housing U.S. troops.
The ongoing war has claimed more than 3,400 lives in Iran, according to the Iranian Health Ministry. Eighteen U.S. service members and 24 civilians in Israel have also been reported killed, along with smaller numbers of civilians in other countries throughout the region. In Lebanon, the death toll has surpassed 4,000 people, along with 38 Israeli troops, as Iran-backed Hezbollah militants have launched attacks on Israel in support of the Islamic Republic.
