Saudi-led coalition bombs Yemeni port (VIDEOS)

The Houthis, an Iranian-backed Shiite group that controls large parts of civil war-torn Yemen, announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia last week in response to what it called the unjust “siege” of the country.

Coalition spokesman Major General Turki Al-Maliki said in a statement that the strikes targeted military sites used to “threaten commercial vessels.”

According to the Houthi-aligned Al Masirah TV, telecommunications facilities were hit. The broadcaster added that a woman was injured in a strike on Kamaran Island off Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

The group’s political wing condemned the attacks and vowed to meet “escalation with escalation,” according to Anadolu.

Shortly after the strike on Hodeidah, Saudi Arabia’s industrial city of Jazan was reportedly hit in an apparent Houthi retaliatory attack. Reports said a large fire broke out at a facility operated by the kingdom’s state-run oil company, Aramco.

The Houthis said they targeted two Saudi-owned tankers this week. Riyadh acknowledged that the Encelia caught fire and later said another Saudi vessel, NCC MASA, sustained minor hull damage in a separate attack on Friday.

The Houthis captured Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014. A year later, Saudi Arabia led an intervention on behalf of the internationally recognized government. The bombing campaign failed to subdue the Houthis but exacerbated Yemen’s already dire humanitarian crisis.

After the war in Gaza broke out in 2023, the Houthis began firing missiles and drones at Israel and attacking ships in what they said was an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. The attacks stopped after the Houthis reached an agreement with the US in May 2025.

US President Donald Trump vowed on Thursday to inflict “major military punishment” on the Houthis, describing the group as “a proxy of Iran.” The US bombed Yemen alongside the UK and Israel in 2025.