Saudi-led coalition strikes Houthi resources in Hodeidah and Dhamar in Sunday-morning operation, releasing footage of the destruction
The Saudi-led coalition said on Sunday that it carried out a precision operation against resources the Houthis use to sustain their war effort in Hodeidah and Dhamar provinces, after continued attacks on civilians and threats to shipping in the southern Red Sea.
The Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen said on Sunday that it had carried out a precision military operation against resources used by the Houthi militia to sustain its war effort, in the provinces of Hodeidah and Dhamar. Coalition spokesman Major General Turki Al-Malki said the operation was launched on Sunday morning and was aimed at neutralising what he described as vital resources that the Houthis exploit to support their military operations.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Al-Malki said the operation followed continued Houthi attacks against civilians and civilian objects in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, alongside threats to maritime shipping lanes in the southern Red Sea. He said the Houthis had continued to use those resources to strengthen their capabilities, particularly their ballistic missile and drone programmes, and that the operation was intended to weaken their ability to carry out repeated attacks.
Later on Sunday evening, the coalition released footage showing what it described as the destruction of key Houthi resources in Hodeidah and Dhamar. The footage, shared on social media, was presented as evidence of the operation, although the coalition statement itself did not initially name the specific sites hit or describe the nature of the resources in detail. That gap between the announcement and the footage left some of the operational detail to be filled in by other reporting during the day.
Houthi-affiliated media gave a different account of the effects on the ground. Al-Masirah television reported that two Saudi airstrikes struck an oil company station in Bajil district in Hodeidah province, wounding three civilians, while another two hit the Faculty of Medicine at Hodeidah University, with no casualties reported there. In the northern province of Saada, the broadcaster also documented missile attacks on the Al-Dhaher and Haydan districts and Saudi gunfire that injured a civilian in the border district of Shada. Those claims could not be independently verified, and the coalition statement gave no information on casualties or material damage.
The operation did not come out of nowhere. It follows a sharp escalation in recent weeks, including Houthi attacks on Saudi civilian infrastructure. The Houthis struck Riyadh’s King Khalid airport on 10 October, killing 13 people, according to earlier reporting, and Saudi officials have since repeatedly condemned attacks on civilian airports and infrastructure. At the Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain this weekend, Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed Elkhereiji warned that threats to navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb required coordinated regional and international action.
The wider Yemen campaign provides further context. Forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government launched an offensive called Operation Dawn of Yemen on 5 October, aiming to restore state institutions in areas under Houthi control and retake the capital, Sanaa. Government-aligned forces have since claimed more than a thousand attacks on Houthi positions during that campaign, with territorial gains reported in Al-Jawf province. The coalition operation on Sunday fits into that broader pattern of pressure on Houthi supply and military infrastructure, rather than standing as an isolated strike.
On Saturday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree had accused Saudi Arabia of launching 66 airstrikes and missile attacks over the preceding 24 hours across Sanaa, Al-Jawf, Taiz, Saada, Hajjah and Lahj, claiming casualties among civilians, including women and children. He put the total number of Saudi strikes since the latest escalation at 3,755. Those figures are Houthi claims and have not been independently confirmed, but they illustrate how both sides have been framing the tempo of the fighting in public statements ahead of Sunday’s operation.
The coalition’s message to the Houthis was blunt. Al-Malki called on the militia to cease all hostile operations against civilians and civilian objects, warning that it would bear the consequences of continued attacks. That warning echoes the language Saudi officials have used throughout the escalation, in which attacks on civilian targets are presented as the trigger for coalition action, and continued attacks as the justification for further operations.
A Houthi military source quoted by the Sanaa-based Saba news agency responded with a threat of its own, warning that it could target Saudi Aramco facilities, warning investors of potential losses and urging international airlines to avoid Saudi airspace except over Mecca and Medina. That threat, like the coalition’s warning, is part of the public exchange that has accompanied the fighting, and it underlines how the conflict is being fought not only with strikes but with statements aimed at markets, airlines and regional governments.
What happens next will depend on whether the exchange of strikes and warnings continues or pauses. The coalition has not said whether further operations are planned, and the Houthis have not given a detailed public response to Sunday’s operation beyond the reports carried by their affiliated media. What is clear is that the southern Red Sea shipping route, the safety of Saudi civilian infrastructure and the fate of the Dawn of Yemen offensive will all be shaped by whether either side steps back from the current cycle, or whether Sunday’s operation proves to be one more round in an escalation that has already drawn in regional capitals and the Manama Dialogue itself.
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