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Yemen's Houthi rebels said Sunday that Saudi Arabia launched more than 50 airstrikes against their positions over the previous 24 hours, days after the Iran-backed group claimed a rare drone and missile attack on a Saudi military base deep inside the kingdom.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a post on Telegram that "the criminal Saudi enemy has carried out 58 airstrikes in the past 24 hours." The claim could not be independently confirmed, as Riyadh has offered little public comment on the strikes.
The exchange marks the latest escalation in fighting that reignited in July, when Yemen's civil war, largely dormant since a 2022 ceasefire, roared back to life.
The Houthis have reported more than 100 strikes against their positions since Tuesday, though Saudi authorities have not confirmed the figures.
According to the Houthi-run Almasirah TV channel, Saudi aircraft carried out two strikes on Saada, a longtime Houthi stronghold, and artillery fire was reported in the nearby border district of Monabbih.
Later Sunday, Almasirah said two additional Saudi strikes hit a market in the northern province of Al-Jawf.
Officials have said the strikes have so far concentrated on front-line areas in support of Yemeni government forces, stopping short of targeting the Houthis' seat of power in the capital, Sanaa.
Earlier this week, the Houthis carried out their heaviest missile and drone attack on Saudi Arabia in years, setting oil sites ablaze and wounding 73 people.
The group said it followed up Sunday with a drone and missile strike on the Sharurah military base in southern Saudi Arabia, which it said targeted "weapons depots and command and control centres that are managing the aggression against our nation and people."
Riyadh has largely declined to detail the impact of Houthi attacks on its territory, though its civil defence agency has issued near-daily alerts warning of potential strikes in southern regions bordering Yemen. On Sunday, the agency sent, then quickly lifted, alerts for the city of Abha and the area around Khamis Mushait.
Late Saturday, the agency said two people were injured when a Houthi-fired projectile struck the Jizan region, also along the Saudi-Yemeni border.
The renewed conflict follows a week-long Houthi offensive that culminated in the group seizing Yemen's Red Sea coast, consolidating its control over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint for global shipping.
The strait has taken on added strategic weight as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed amid the ongoing US-Iran war, making the Red Sea route a critical outlet for Saudi oil exports.
The current round of hostilities began in July, when the Houthis allowed an Iranian aircraft to land in Yemen in defiance of Saudi control over the country's airspace.
The Yemeni government responded by striking Sanaa's airport, an attack the Houthis blamed on Saudi Arabia. The Houthis subsequently declared a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia and began targeting Saudi vessels in the Red Sea.
Yemen's civil war dates to 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and ousted the internationally recognized government. A Saudi-led military coalition then fought the group from 2015 until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire took hold in 2022. The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and produced one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises.
The renewed fighting has driven a fast-growing humanitarian toll. The United Nations' International Organization for Migration said Sunday that nearly 86,000 people have been displaced in Yemen in recent weeks, with the total climbing by 10,000 in a single day.
The agency said some of those displaced have left Yemen entirely, with more than 2,000 people arriving in Djibouti.
The conflict has drawn in regional and global powers. Yemen is the latest front in a broader Middle East war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.
According to a report by the US news site Axios, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman twice telephoned President Donald Trump last week to request US strikes against the Houthis, a request Trump reportedly turned down.
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