Yemen

The Houthi Movement, that controls Sanaa and other parts of Yemen, have reignited the civil war in the country, and launched attackes on Saudi border regions. At least 30 Yemeni government troops have reportedly been killed in Houthi rebel attacks on military camps in central Yemen. The defence ministry said ballistic missiles and drones struck several camps in the provinces of Marib and Hadramawt, resulting in the death and injury of a number of Yemeni personnel. It did not give an exact toll. The ministry denounced the attacks as "treacherous" and vowed to "respond to this aggression at an appropriate time and place". The Houthis, who control much of north-western Yemen and are backed by Iran, said they had targeted "large Saudi military build-ups" preparing for an offensive. A Saudi-led coalition has supported the government during the civil war. In a separate attack, the coalition's spokesperson said that 11 civilians had been wounded in the Saudi Arabian border region of Najran, in what they described as a Houthi strike. (click image to read more)

Attacks on Saudi Arabia have increased in the last days., as the conflict between the Kingdom, and the Iran-backed Houthi Movement in Yemen escalates. Earlier in July, the Houthis declared a maritime siege on Red Sea shipping to and from Saudi Arabia, and launched missiles and drones at the kingdom. Riyadh has since launched air strikes on Yemen’s key port city of Hodeidah, held by the Houthis. Yemen’s Houthi movement is aiming to replicate Iran’s ⁠strategy in the Strait of Hormuz by controlling shipping flows in the Red Sea’s Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Yemeni government’s top diplomat warns. “The Houthis want to copy the Iranian model , and this will shut down two main straits, the gateways into the ⁠Gulf and Red Sea,” the foreign minister-designate for the internationally recognised Yemeni government, Afrah al-Zouba, told journalists on Monday. Speaking at the Yemeni embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, al-Zouba said the Houthis have been emboldened due to the insufficient international response to their activities in the region. Bab al-Mandeb Strait connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean, and – much like the Strait of Hormuz – a significant portion of the global economy depends on the unimpeded flow of maritime traffic through it. Approximately 30 percent of global container traffic passes through the Red Sea, and 12 to 15 percent of overall global trade. Yemen’s geography gives whoever controls the country’s west a commanding influence over traffic through Bab al-Mandeb. Data suggests that shipping through the Red Sea is already declining, with just 11 commodity vessels passing through it on Sunday. (click image to read more)