The shuttered Saudi embassy in Yemen’s capital Sana’a, with a mural depicting a Houthi fighter stopping a ship. Photograph: Yahya Arhab/EPA
Fighting across Yemen intensified on Sunday as Houthi fighters claimed a drone-and-missile assault on a Saudi military base, while fresh clashes with government forces drove thousands more civilians from their homes.
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Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on X that the strike targeted the Sharurah base in southern Saudi Arabia, including “weapons depots and command and control centres that are managing the aggression against our nation and people”.
The Houthis did not say when the operation took place. Violence has escalated this week between the Iran-aligned group and Yemeni government forces, which receive backing from Riyadh.
Yemeni government forces said on Saturday that they had hit Houthi fighters in the Red Sea port city of Mocha before launching further attacks on positions in the country’s south-west.
“Air Force of the Armed Forces targeted positions and barracks of the terrorist Houthi group with three airstrikes” in the Taiz region, Yemen’s military said in a post on X on Sunday.
The US news site Axios reported separately that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had called Donald Trump twice last week to seek US strikes against the Houthis, but that Trump rejected the request.
The latest clashes came after a week-long Houthi offensive that ended with the group taking the remaining stretch of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline and several strategically important islands. The gains have strengthened its control over the Bab al-Mandab strait, the gateway at the southern end of the Red Sea.
The waterway has assumed added importance for Saudi oil exports after Iran largely halted shipping through the Gulf by blockading the Strait of Hormuz at the beginning of the Middle East war.
Iranian ship struck near Hormuz, state media says
Iranian state media reported that an Iranian commercial vessel was hit early on Sunday near Qeshm Island, close to the Strait of Hormuz, killing one person and injuring three others.
Overnight, several explosions were reported around Qeshm, the largest island in the Strait of Hormuz.
The US military did not immediately comment. American forces have previously struck Iranian-flagged vessels as part of an ongoing blockade of Iranian ports.
Maritime tracking organisations also received fresh reports of an attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, deepening concerns over threats to energy supplies after Saudi Arabia shut down a major oil pipeline.
The British navy-affiliated agency UKMTO said it had a report of a projectile hitting a vessel as it travelled through the strait. Early on Sunday, the agency said the extent of the damage and the condition of the crew remained unknown.
The Houthis have recently announced their own maritime blockade targeting Riyadh’s ports on the Red Sea.
Yemen’s state news agency Saba said on Saturday that government “forces destroyed vehicles and weapons and killed members of the Houthi terrorist militia” near Mocha. It quoted a military spokesperson as saying that Houthi targets outside the city had also been hit.
The Houthis said later on Saturday that “Saudi enemy aircraft conducted 129 airstrikes” over the previous 48 hours in areas under their control.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sana’a. The conflict had remained largely dormant after a ceasefire in 2022, but erupted again in July.
Saudi Arabia joined the war in 2015 in support of Yemen’s internationally recognised government and continues to back the administration based in Aden.
Saudi authorities said late Saturday that a Houthi projectile had landed near the border, hours after issuing warnings about the possibility of attacks. The civil defence directorate said the incident caused “two injuries and material damage to a mosque, several buildings, and vehicles”.
Years of civil war have displaced millions of Yemenis, and the latest escalation has forced still more people to leave their homes.
Mocha’s fall to the Houthis on Thursday prompted many residents to flee towards Aden, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
The UN migration agency said on Saturday that 76,000 people had escaped the fighting since July. That total had quadrupled in the space of a week.
Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, Djibouti’s minister of economy and finance, said on Saturday that about 1,400 people had crossed into the country.
More than 500 people have been killed in the renewed fighting, according to sources on both sides.
Trump acknowledged on Saturday that he had spoken with the de facto Saudi leader, but said the Houthis had also “called us and they don’t want to fight with us”. He offered no details on whether Washington might intervene, telling reporters instead that “everything’s gonna work out fine and dandy” in the region.
In 2025, the US carried out a seven-week bombing campaign against the Houthis after repeated attacks on Red Sea shipping, which the group said were conducted in support of Hamas during the Gaza war.
The campaign ended with a negotiated ceasefire, although the Houthis continued launching missiles and drones at Israel.
The group has more recently resumed attacks on Red Sea shipping after announcing its maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia.
In Sana’a, Houthi supporters marked the release of 210 prisoners held in territories captured by the group. Some had spent as long as eight years in detention.
