Houthis fire missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia in response to strikes on a Yemeni city

CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said Saturday that they fired missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia in response to Saudi airstrikes on the strategic Red Sea city of Hodeida, in another escalation over vital shipping routes in the Middle East while the United States and Iran vie for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the Houthis’ military spokesman, said in a prerecorded statement that the attack targeted facilities in the Red Sea cities of Yanbu and Jizan that belong to Aramco, the world’s largest oil company.

Saudi Arabia’s civil defense said alerts sounded multiple times early Saturday in both cities, but the Kingdom hasn’t commented further.

There were no reported strikes overnight in Iran, in an apparent break from nearly two weeks of consecutive nights of U.S. attacks, though tension remains high following a recent escalation between the two countries over the Strait of Hormuz.

Red Sea escalation further threatens global shipping

The rising tension in the Red Sea threatens to further choke global shipping because the rebels have said they would close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping.

That strait, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is a vital shipping chokepoint, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Around 12% of the world’s trade, including a quarter of its container traffic, passes through the narrows.

The Houthis targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea this week. In response, Saudi Arabia struck the Yemeni port city of Hodeida, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said early Saturday. The strikes late Friday hit the city’s port and the state-run telecommunications corporation, injuring two people, said Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said it didn’t hit the port but struck “legitimate military targets” in Hodeida province, which “were linked to threats to commercial vessels in the Red Sea.”

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, called for “diplomacy and dialogue” to solve the Yemen conflict without “military confrontations” in an interview published Saturday in the state-run Iran newspaper.

No new strikes overnight in Iran, but tension remains high

“Iran had a peaceful night,” Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for Iran’s Health Ministry, posted Saturday on X.

U.S. Central Command didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. However, unlike the previous 13 nights, it didn’t announce new strikes.

After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February, a tenuous ceasefire that halted major operations for several weeks has seemed to unravel this month. The U.S. accused Iran of striking three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and responded by striking dozens of targets in Iran, which retaliated by firing at U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states.

The Strait of Hormuz has been at the center of the conflict. The U.S. military on Friday fired on a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Oman that was trying to breach its renewed blockade of Iran’s ports, while Iran targeted U.S.-allied countries in the region.

U.S. embassies alerted American nationals in the Middle East on Friday that options to leave could become more limited, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard advised residents of neighboring countries to stay away from bases with U.S. troops.

The war has killed more than 3,400 people in Iran, according to the Iranian Health Ministry. Eighteen U.S. service members, 24 civilians in Israel, and smaller numbers of civilians have been reported dead in countries across the region.

In Lebanon, more than 4,000 people have been killed, as well as 38 Israeli troops, after the Iran-backed Hezbollah militants fired at Israel in support of the Islamic Republic.

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Dell’Orto reported from Jerusalem.

Samy Magdy And Giovanna Dell’orto, The Associated Press