Saudi Arabia carried out airstrikes against Yemen’s Hodeidah governorate on Friday, according to reports from Al Masirah TV, a broadcaster operated by the Houthi movement. Prior to the report, eyewitnesses had described multiple strikes hitting the port area of Hodeidah.
Al Masirah reported that the Saudi strikes damaged facilities belonging to the state telecommunications corporation within Hodeidah city. Saudi forces also reportedly struck Kamaran island, located off Yemen’s western coastline. Reuters was unable to independently confirm these accounts.
The strikes come days after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement announced Monday that it would enforce a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea — a move that could open a new front in the broader conflict between the United States and Iran. In response, the Saudi-led coalition warned it would act “firmly.”
Saudi Arabia has worked to prevent a return to large-scale warfare in Yemen ever since a 2022 ceasefire with the Houthis brought most major combat to a halt. That conflict, which stretched on for years, resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from fighting, starvation, and disease.
