Houthis claim hitting Saudi base in renewed fighting with Yemeni govt forces

Yemen's Houthi group said on Sunday they used drones and missiles to attack a military base in southern Saudi Arabia as renewed fighting with Yemen's government forces forced growing numbers of civilians to flee.

The attack at the southern Sharurah base targeted "weapons depots and command and control centres that are managing the aggression against our nation and people," Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea wrote on X.

The date of the operation was not specified. 

Clashes have increased this week between the Houthis and Yemeni government forces. On Saturday, the government forces said they had struck Houthi fighters in the Red Sea city of Mocha and later attacked other Houthi positions in the southwestern part of the country.

"Air Force of the Armed Forces targeted positions and barracks of the terrorist Houthi group with three airstrikes" in the Taiz region, the Yemeni military said Sunday in a post on X.

US news site Axios also reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud called US President Donald Trump twice to request strikes on the Houthis last week, but that the request was rejected.

The ongoing clashes follow a week-long Houthi offensive that culminated in the group capturing the remainder of Yemen's Red Sea coast and several strategic islands, cementing their hold on the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the sea's southern entrance.

The waterway has become an important artery for Saudi Arabian oil exports after Iran largely cut off shipments through the Gulf with its blockade on the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the Middle East war.

The Houthis have recently declared their own maritime blockade of Riyadh's Red Sea ports.

The state-run Saba news agency reported on Saturday that Yemeni "forces destroyed vehicles and weapons and killed members of the Houthi terrorist militia" near the port of Mocha. It quoted a spokesperson for the forces as saying they had also struck Houthi targets just outside the city.

The Houthis, meanwhile, said on Saturday evening that over the past 48 hours, "Saudi enemy aircraft conducted 129 airstrikes" on areas under their control.

2 injured after projectile falls in Saudi Arabia's Jazan

On Saturday night, Saudi authorities said a Houthi projectile fell in Al-Tuwal governorate in the Jazan region, hours after issuing alerts warning of the risk of possible attacks.

The civil defense directorate said the incident resulted "in two injuries and material damage to a mosque, several buildings and vehicles."

The latest fighting between the government forces and the Houthi group has uprooted millions of people and led even more to flee their homes.

The fall of Mocha to the Houthis on Thursday drove many residents to Aden, where the internationally recognized government is based.

One of the displaced, Abdulali al-Rajihi, said the Houthis told them: "Leave, scatter, you have half an hour."

"We fled wearing the clothes on our backs, and we took our children, as much as we could manage."

The UN's migration agency said on Saturday that since July, 76,000 people had fled the fighting, a figure that had quadrupled since last week.

About 1,400 people had fled to Djibouti, the country's minister of economy and finance Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh said on Saturday.

The renewed fighting in Yemen has killed more than 500 people, according to sources on both sides.

Trump says Yemen's Houthis have asked US not to intervene

Trump on Saturday acknowledged speaking to the de facto Saudi leader but said the Houthis had also "called us and they don't want to fight with us."

He did not elaborate on whether Washington would take any action, but told reporters that "everything's gonna work out fine and dandy" in the region.

In 2025, the United States conducted a seven-week bombing campaign against the Houthis in response to their repeated attacks on Red Sea shipping in support of Hamas in the Gaza war.

That ended with a negotiated ceasefire, though the Houthis kept up their missile and drone attacks targeting Israel.

More recently, the group has resumed attacks on ships in the Red Sea after declaring their maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia.

In Yemen's capital Sanaa, Houthi supporters celebrated the freeing of 210 prisoners held in areas that fell to the group.

(With input from agencies)