• Yemeni official says 23 government soldiers killed in two southwestern provinces
• Houthis report 40 fighters die in Saudi air strikes and fighting on ground

RIYADH: Fighting between the Houthis and Yemeni government forces and their Saudi backers has killed 68 people in the last 24 hours, military sources from both sides told AFP on Thursday.

At least 23 government soldiers were killed in missile and drone attacks by Houthi in two southwestern provinces, a government official said. Meanwhile, Houthi military sources reported 40 fighters killed in Saudi air strikes and fighting on the ground.

The three sides have been locked in increasingly violent exchanges since Yemen’s civil war flared back to life, with Saudi Arabia accusing the Houthis of firing at the holy city of Makkah this week.

Earlier, both sides reported civilian casualties. Saudi authorities said a Yemeni national living in the kingdom died after a drone was intercepted over Taif, a city east of Makkah, sending debris raining down on the area.

“The fall of shrapnel from a downed drone in Taif governorate resulted in one death, two injuries, and material damage to several buildings and vehicles,” authorities said.

It was the first death recorded inside Saudi Arabia since hostilities flared. State media footage showed shattered shopfronts and cars with their windows blown out.

Meanwhile, Houthi-run Almasirah television said three children were killed in strikes it blamed on “Saudi-backed mercenaries”, a reference to Yemen’s internationally recognised government.

The Houthis separately reported air raids on telecommunications infrastructure in Taiz province, with one civilian killed in the town of Abs.

The violence has now displaced more than 100,000 people, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Threat to shipping lanes

The Houthis now control the whole of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, having seized it within the past week, and say Saudi jets have carried out hundreds of strikes in response to their advance.

The group claims to have downed a Saudi F-15 on Wednesday, releasing footage of fighters at a smouldering crash site holding up wreckage marked with Saudi insignia.

“We want the Saudis to cease their blockade and occupation of our country and to stop their aggression against us. This is our demand,” said the Houthi leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, in a televised address.

The escalation compounds an already precarious picture for global energy markets. With Iran squeezing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz since the region-wide war broke out, Houthi control of the Bab el-Mandeb effectively closes off the other critical corridor for Gulf oil exports — including the pipeline route Saudi Arabia had relied on to bypass Hormuz altogether. The current round of fighting traces back to the collapse of a fragile 2022 truce in July.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2026