Yemen's Houthi rebels launched a series of ballistic missile and drone strikes on Thursday that killed at least 58 Saudi-backed government soldiers and wounded 11 civilians across the border in Saudi Arabia, marking one of the deadliest days in the Yemeni conflict in four years. The attacks targeted military camps in the central province of Marib and the eastern province of Hadramawt, while a separate strike hit the Najran border region of southern Saudi Arabia, injuring seven Saudi nationals — including a woman and a four-year-old child who suffered second-degree burns — along with a Yemeni, two Egyptians, and a Pakistani national.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group attacked government positions with ballistic missiles and drones in response to what he described as a large-scale Saudi-backed military buildup preparing to assault Houthi-controlled territory. One missile struck troops during their morning formation at a camp in the al-Ruwaik area of Marib province, killing and wounding at least 45 personnel, according to military sources. Yemen's internationally recognised government — which controls much of the south while the Houthis hold the capital Sanaa and much of the populous north — said its armed forces would respond "at the appropriate place and time." Yemen's information minister condemned the strikes as further evidence that the Houthis "only know how to kill Yemenis."

The escalation is the sharpest since a UN-brokered de facto ceasefire reached in April 2022 that had largely held despite formally expiring. That fragile calm began to unravel last month when the Houthis — formally known as Ansar Allah and backed by Iran — welcomed an Iranian aircraft directly into Sanaa, triggering a cycle of tit-for-tat confrontation. The group subsequently declared a maritime blockade of Saudi ports in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical global trade chokepoint, and began striking Saudi oil tankers. Saudi Arabia, which has led a military coalition supporting the internationally recognised Yemeni government since 2015, responded with air strikes on Houthi military positions inside Yemen.

The stakes are rising beyond Yemen's borders. A senior Saudi official warned Thursday that intelligence from Saudi Arabia, the United States, and regional partners points to imminent coordinated attacks on Saudi civilian and economic infrastructure — including energy facilities, ports, and airports — to be carried out by Iranian-backed Iraqi militias striking from the north in coordination with the Houthis in the south, under the direction of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. The official said Saudi-American security cooperation remains "very high" at all levels and that Riyadh is prepared to respond to any aggression, while also noting that diplomatic contacts with all parties, including Iran, appear to be moving "in the right direction." Iraqi security forces, meanwhile, have begun deploying to open areas to guard against potential drone or missile launches, according to a security source.

Yemen has been mired in civil war since 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and forced the internationally recognised government into exile. The decade-long conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Thursday's attacks, described by a military official as the deadliest single-day toll since 2022, signal that Yemen risks being drawn into a broader and more destructive cycle of regional violence at a moment when diplomatic efforts to contain the conflict remain tenuous.