Casualties mount amid clashes involving Saudi Arabia, Houthi rebels and Yemeni government forces

[Financial News]  

Clashes between Saudi Arabia and the pro-Iran Houthi rebels in Yemen, as well as between the Houthi rebels and Yemeni government forces, continued on the 24th (local time), leaving numerous casualties.
Al Jazeera and other foreign media reported that the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles fired by Houthi rebels toward the Saudi western cities of Taif and Yanbu. No casualties or property damage have been reported, and authorities are urging residents to beware as debris is currently falling.
In addition to Taif and Yanbu, Mecca, Islam's holiest site, and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's second-largest city, also came under attack.
The Saudi state-run SPA news agency said that fragments from two of the ballistic missiles fired by Houthi rebels toward the Mecca and Medina regions fell in Mecca, while debris from the missile interception fell in Jeddah, Taif and Rabigh.
The latest attack came two days later. Houthi rebels had earlier said they attacked the Saudi Defense Ministry in Riyadh, Saudi Aramco facilities in Yanbu, and King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, among other sites. Saudi authorities did not officially confirm strikes on Riyadh and Yanbu, but said two people were killed in the attack on Dammam airport.
Saudi Arabia retaliated immediately.
According to the Houthi rebels' Al-Masirah broadcast, at least four people were killed and numerous others injured in Saudi airstrikes on the Asr area west of Sana'a, the Yemeni capital controlled by the rebels. A dormitory at a cement factory in Sana'a was also hit in an airstrike, killing six women and one child and injuring three people.
The broadcaster also reported that Saudi forces carried out an airstrike on civilian homes in Al-Tuhaita district in southern Hodeidah, killing five people—the head of the household, two wives and two children—and injuring one daughter.
Clashes between Houthi rebels and Yemeni government forces also continued.
The Houthi rebels claimed they carried out an airstrike on a naval base in Aden, the Yemeni government's interim capital, on the 24th.
However, Yemen's Ministry of Transport accused the rebels of targeting key civilian facilities, saying that two ballistic missiles had been launched at Aden International Airport this time.
Yemeni government forces also claimed they had conducted operations against around 700 targets over the past 24 hours, killing 300 Houthi rebels and destroying 68 vehicles and other materiel.

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