Five Killed, 12 Wounded as Yemen’s Houthis Shell Saudi Border City

Two Shells Hit City, Saudis Confirm

After over a month of Saudi warplanes pounding Yemeni cities, the Houthis are firing back against the southern Saudi city of Najran, with a pair of shells having hit the city over the past 24 hours, killing five and wounding 12.

One of the shells killed two civilians in a car, along with two “passers-by” and 11 wounded. The other shell killed a security officer near a prison, and wounded another.

There had previously been some fighting along the border itself between Houthis and the massive Saudi ground force massing at the border, but these shells are the first time the Houthis have struck anything particularly deep inside the country.

Saudi officials apparently did not anticipate this, and are expressing both surprise and outrage at the strikes, vowing a full-scale military response and the destruction of all Houthis in Yemen.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.