SANAA, Yemen (AFP) — The Houthis said Sunday that Saudi Arabia launched 28 strikes in several areas of Yemen in the past 24 hours, as the pro-Iran group and the country’s Riyadh-backed government clash in the revived civil war.

“The Saudi air force carried out 28 strikes targeting the governorates of Taiz, Al-Jawf, and Marib, using F-15 and Typhoon aircraft that took off from the Khamis Mushait and Taif airbases,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said, in a statement.

This month, the Houthis, who already held most of Yemen’s populated areas, launched a lightning offensive to take over the country’s entire Red Sea coast, giving them control over the vital Bab al-Mandab strait.

The Houthis insist that navigation of the strait is open and free except for Saudi vessels.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthis said Saturday the Iran-backed group fired a ballistic missile at Riyadh at dawn, after a fire broke out near the Saudi capital’s international airport.

The war, which began in 2014 with the Houthi capture of the capital Sanaa, had been largely frozen since 2022 but erupted back into life in July.

Saudi Arabia has, since 2015, led a coalition backing the internationally recognized government. Its intervention escalated the war, which has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in the impoverished country.

In 2025, the United Nations warned that 17 million people in Yemen were struggling to eat and a further million faced extreme hunger.