Yemen: 58 soldiers killed in Houthi attacks, the highest toll since 2022

Houthi rebels struck two Yemeni provinces on Thursday with drones and missiles, killing at least 58 members of government forces. This is the deadliest attack since the 2022 ceasefire.

The attacks targeted a military camp in Marib province, in central Yemen, as well as other positions in Hadramawt province, near the Saudi border. According to a military official, these strikes are the deadliest operations since the UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022, which ended more than seven years of war.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for "a large-scale operation targeting concentrations of enemy troops," denouncing "a significant Saudi military buildup." He warned that the rebels were "ready in case of escalation."

The Yemeni government's Ministry of Defense, recognized by the international community, has promised to retaliate against this "aggression at the appropriate time and place."

This resurgence of violence is part of a renewed hostilities that began last month between the pro-Iranian Houthis and Saudi Arabia, a US ally. The trigger: the attempted landing in Sana'a of an Iranian plane from Tehran, perceived as a challenge to Saudi hegemony over Yemeni airspace, in the context of the war between the United States and Iran.

On Wednesday, the rebels had already claimed responsibility for attacking two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as part of the maritime blockade they announced in July against the Saudi fleet. These actions threaten the ability of Riyadh, the world's largest crude oil exporter, to transport its oil to international markets, while Iran has been sealing off the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the regional conflict in late February.

In early July, sixteen loyalist soldiers had already been killed in a Houthi attack south of Hodeida, according to medical sources. The rebels also struck infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, which retaliated by firing on Houthi positions.

The Yemeni conflict began in 2014 when the Houthis, operating from their stronghold of Saada in the north of the country, seized control of large swathes of territory, including the capital, Sana'a. Riyadh intervened militarily in 2015 to support the government. The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and plunged Yemen into a severe humanitarian crisis.