ALBAWABA- Saudi Arabia's military coalition said 11 civilians were injured in Houthi attacks on the southern border region of Najran on Thursday, amid a sharp escalation in cross-border hostilities between the Iran-aligned group and the Kingdom.
Coalition spokesperson Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki said the wounded included seven Saudi nationals, among them a woman and a four-year-old child who suffered second-degree burns, as well as one Yemeni, two Egyptian, and one Pakistani national.
According to Al-Maliki, the Houthis used indiscriminate projectiles to target civilian facilities, describing the attack as a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law" through the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure. He said the Saudi-led coalition would continue taking deterrent measures to protect civilians and respond to cross-border threats.
The attack came hours after the Houthis launched a large-scale missile and drone assault on Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces in Ma'rib and Hadhramaut, in one of the deadliest attacks since the 2022 truce.
Government sources said over 45 soldiers were killed, with dozens more wounded, while the Houthis claimed they had inflicted hundreds of casualties and destroyed military camps, vehicles, and weapons depots.
The latest cross-border strike follows Houthi claims of attacks on Saudi-linked commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as part of the group's declared maritime blockade against Saudi shipping, which it says is retaliation for the Kingdom's restrictions on Yemen.
The escalation comes ahead of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Saudi Arabia on Friday for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, with regional security expected to dominate the agenda.
Separately, a senior Saudi official told international media that intelligence assessments indicated Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups were preparing coordinated attacks on the Kingdom alongside the Houthis under the supervision of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The official said potential targets included energy facilities, ports, airports, and other critical infrastructure.
