Israel said on Saturday it had detected a missile fired from Yemen, the first since the Iran war began, while Secretary of State Marco ‌Rubio said the US expected to conclude military operations within weeks, not months.

A month after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran, the conflict has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and causing the biggest disruption ever to energy supplies, hitting the global economy and fuelling inflation fears.

While Israel said it was again hitting targets across Iran’s capital on Saturday, it identified what it said was a missile launched from Yemen.

Risk of broadening the war

Hours earlier, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they ​were prepared to act if what the group called an escalation against Iran and the “axis of resistance” continued, but did not say what form any intervention would take.

Houthi involvement in the war would ​risk broadening the conflict, given their ability to strike targets far beyond Yemen and disrupt shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, ⁠which they had done in support of Hamas in Gaza after October 7, 2023.

Israel’s military said on Saturday it had detected incoming missiles from Iran, and Syrian state television reported explosions heard above the capital Damascus from Israeli intercepts of the Iranian missiles.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain also reported missile attacks early on Saturday, with five people injured and fires reported after a missile was intercepted near Abu Dhabi’s KEZAD economic zone.

At least five people were killed and seven injured after a ⁠US-Israeli attack ​on a residential unit in Iran’s northwestern city of Zanjan, Iranian media reported early on Saturday.

The Iran University of Science ​and Technology in Tehran was also struck, media reported.