The latest violence has raised the spectre of a return to war in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, where a 2022 truce between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government had largely held before unravelling last month.

A Yemeni military source told AFP that Houthi attacks in Marib province killed eight members of government forces and wounded 12 others.

The health minister for the Saudi-backed government said the rebels had shelled residential areas and displacement camps in Marib city, killing at least two civilians and wounding 14 others.

The Iran-backed rebels later claimed an attack on a government-held military camp in Marib province.

“The Saudi enemy continued to mobilise and incite its forces… these forces were attacked along with their arsenals, vehicles and military equipment in the Sahn al-Jinn camp with a large number of missiles and drones,” Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement, referring to the camp held by government forces.

Health minister Qasim Buhaibeh said in a post on X that “shelling by the terrorist Houthi militia today, Friday, targeting residential neighbourhoods and displacement camps in the city of Marib, has resulted — according to an initial toll — in the deaths of two civilians and injuries of varying severity to 14 others”.

The Houthis had also launched “more than 10 missiles and seven one-way attack drones targeting military camps in Marib” province, the Yemeni military source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

A source close to the Saudi military told AFP that the Saudi-led coalition supporting the Yemeni government since 2015 would not stand “idly by” as the Houthis step up their attacks, adding that Marib was a “red line”.

He warned that “the coalition does not seek escalation, but we will not allow the current balance of power on the ground to be changed”.

Riyadh would not accept a Houthi takeover of Marib, he said, adding that he believed the rebels were seeking to launch an offensive in the province.

Strategic province

The rebels said on Thursday that they had attacked several sites in response to a Saudi-backed build-up of government forces.

Thursday’s attacks with missiles and drones killed at least 58 government troops, mainly in Marib, an army source told AFP earlier, one of the deadliest incidents between the two sides in years.

The Yemeni military source had previously said artillery exchanges and clashes were taking place in Sirwah and on the Al-Kasara front, north of Marib city, where Houthi drones were spotted.

The rebels also hit an arms depot in the region.

Strategic Marib province is split between the Houthis and the Yemeni government, which controls the city of the same name as well as the area’s oil fields and facilities.

The Houthis in 2021 resumed an offensive seeking to take the energy-rich province, but the fighting was largely halted after a nationwide truce was agreed in 2022.

Yemen, which has been embroiled in more than a decade of war, last month became the latest front to be sucked into the US-Iran conflict, as the Tehran-backed Houthis upended the 2022 truce.

The rebels welcomed an Iranian plane directly to the Yemeni capital Sanaa, triggering a series of tit-for-tat attacks. They later announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began hitting its tankers.

Last month, the Houthis also killed 16 soldiers in an attack on government-aligned forces south of the port city of Hodeidah, two medical officials told AFP.