Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen on Tuesday accused each other of launching attacks at their territories, with reports of casualties on both sides, days after the Iran-backed militia seized key areas of Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
A Saudi military spokesperson, major general Turki al-Malki, said the Houthis had targeted three cities across the kingdom, injuring 13 people, without specifying when the attacks happened. The Houthis have not commented publicly on those attacks.
Also on Tuesday, the Houthi-run health ministry in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, said in a statement that Saudi air strikes had killed three people, including two children, in Taiz province. The Saudi government did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the strikes.
The Saudi civil defense issued emergency alerts overnight in several cities on the country’s western coast, including Jeddah, Yanbu and Taif, and issued additional emergency alerts Tuesday afternoon for Mecca, Jeddah and Taif.
The alerts Tuesday were the most widespread across the kingdom in a single day since the fighting in Yemen intensified.
Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition in Yemen that has been fighting to restore the country’s internationally-recognised government since 2015, after the Houthis seized control of Sanaa. A truce in 2022 largely quelled the fighting but has unravelled in recent weeks, with fierce ground clashes between Houthi fighters and forces allied with the Saudi-backed government.
The full scope of ground fighting remains unclear but the hostilities have displaced approximately 125,000 people in Yemen since September, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
In recent days, the Houthis have seized control of territory along the Red Sea, including the port city of Mokha and Perim Island, which sits in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the sea’s southern entrance.
The Houthi advance on the coast of the Red Sea is a significant setback for Saudi Arabia, which has pivoted to exporting most of its oil through there after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf in the early days of the war with the United States.
The Houthis have declared a blockade on Saudi shipping and attacked vessels in the Red Sea and oil facilities in the kingdom.
Analysts say that the capture of Perim Island could give the Houthis a strategic foothold to further threaten shipping. The Houthis have denied posing any threat to maritime security and say they are only targeting Saudi Arabia.
On Friday, Saudi authorities were forced to shut down their east-west oil pipeline, a critical conduit for getting oil to the country’s Red Sea ports, following a drone attack they said was launched from Iraq.
No group has officially claimed the drone attack on the East-West pipeline, although on Saturday US president Donald Trump said Iran was “probably” behind the assault. Iran has not commented on the claim.
Saudi officials have said the drone came from Iraq, which has been a hotbed for well-armed militias under Iran’s sway that the Iraqi government has struggled to bring under control.
Saudi Arabia recently asked the United States to take military action against the Houthis but was rebuffed by Trump, according to officials with knowledge of the conversations.
Amid the turmoil, Trump on Monday nominated representative Wesley Hunt of Texas to serve as US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, filling a post that had remained vacant since January 2025. Hunt, a retired US army captain, previously served in Saudi Arabia as a diplomatic liaison officer.
Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, travelled to Egypt on Tuesday to meet the country’s leader, president Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, to “discuss ways to enhance fraternal bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern,” according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
The visit to Cairo comes a day after the crown prince met admiral Brad Cooper, who oversees US operations in the Middle East, in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, to discuss “the latest regional developments.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times