Houthis kill dozens of Saudi-backed Yemeni govt forces: medical sources

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis killed dozens of Saudi-backed government troops in missile and drone attacks Thursday, medical sources said, the deadliest violence in years between them as the conflict becomes the latest front in the US-Iran war.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the rebels attacked government positions with ballistic missiles and drones in response to an alleged military buildup backed by neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The attacks killed at least 38 government troops and injured 29, two medical sources told AFP, with a military official describing them as the deadliest between the two sides since 2022.

The latest attacks risk pushing Yemen into a more intense cycle of violence and retaliation.

The Houthis have ramped up the provocations of their Saudi foe since last month in what has become another front in the US-Iran war.

The military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that a military camp in the al-Ruwaik area of Marib province in central Yemen had been attacked, as well as camps in the Al-Abr and Al-Wadiah areas of Hadramawt, near the border with Saudi Arabia.

One of the missile attacks hit troops during their morning formation at the camp in Marib, "killing and wounding at least 45 personnel", said another military source, who declined to be named for security reasons.

Saree named Al-Ruwaik, al-Thaniyah and al-Abr as being among the areas hit, warning the rebels were "prepared to confront any escalation".

- Tit-for-tat -

Yemen, which has been embroiled in more than a decade of war, last month became the latest front to be sucked into the Middle East war, as the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels upended a 2022 truce with the Saudi-backed government.

The rebels welcomed an Iranian plane directly in the capital Sanaa, triggering tit-for-tat attacks, and they later announced a maritime blockade of the kingdom and began hitting its tankers.

Last month, the Houthis killed 16 troops in an attack on government-aligned forces south of the port city of Hodeidah, two medical officials told AFP.

The Houthis have been at war with the government since 2014 in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered a major humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

The rebels control Yemen's capital Sanaa and much of the populous north, while the internationally recognised government holds much of the south.

The fighting between the two sides has largely been frozen since a UN-negotiated truce in 2022 that had held despite expiring.