Fresh Saudi air strikes and Houthi attacks erupted along the kingdom’s border with Yemen as civilians fled by boat across the Red Sea, deepening fears that the widening Middle East war could further threaten global oil supplies.
Houthi-controlled television reported that Saudi aircraft had targeted areas of Hajjah province near the Saudi border and Red Sea coast, as well as the vicinity of Taiz farther south and inland.
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Saudi Arabia’s civil defence authorities said a Yemeni resident had been killed in the western city of Taif by debris from a drone intercepted overhead. It was the first death Riyadh has reported during the repeated Houthi attacks since the fighting intensified last week.
Saudi officials have previously said that more than 80 people were wounded.
US President Donald Trump has rejected Saudi appeals for military assistance against the Houthis, who reached a ceasefire with Washington last year after enduring two months of US bombing.
Mr Trump is also facing the possibility of political setbacks for his Republican Party in November’s midterm elections, in part because energy prices have risen since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran in February.
Donald Trump says he faces a “big decision” on Iran
Mr Trump said today that he was nearing a pivotal choice over whether to resume large-scale attacks on Iran.
“I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them or do I not? It’s a big decision. Anything could happen with me,” Mr Trump said in an interview with Axios.
Mr Trump has previously threatened major new attacks that ultimately did not take place.
Global crude prices edged lower today but remained comfortably above $100 a barrel after reaching their highest point since May. The average US retail price for diesel also set a record, coming in just below $6.40 a gallon.
The United States and Iran have held no talks aimed at ending the war since an interim agreement reached in June collapsed within weeks.
However, the conflict is expected to be discussed at next week’s United Nations General Assembly, where an Iranian delegation will be permitted to attend, according to the US State Department.
More than 100,000 Yemenis displaced by latest fighting
The International Organization for Migration said more than 100,000 Yemenis had been displaced by the latest violence, most of them within Yemen.
The Houthis, who seized Yemen’s entire Red Sea coastline in a rapid advance beginning last week, claim that Saudi forces have carried out hundreds of air strikes in recent days. The group said yesterday that it had shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet.
“We want the Saudis to cease their blockade and occupation of our country, and to stop their aggression against us. This is our demand!” Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised address, a traditional dagger tucked into his belt.
Behind him, slogans painted on the wall declared: “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews, victory for Islam.”
The US Navy is working to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the passage along Iran’s coast that carried one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas before the war. Washington is also enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports.
Iran says the strait is closed and will remain so until the United States lifts the blockade. Tehran is seeking an arrangement with neighbouring Gulf states that would allow it to charge fees to vessels travelling through the passage.
The conflict in Yemen and the attacks on Saudi Arabia have placed the Gulf’s principal alternative oil route in jeopardy. The Houthis now control the Red Sea coast and islands inside the Babel-Mandeb, or “Gate of Tears”, the strait at the waterway’s southern entrance.
Read more on the conflict in the Middle East
