Houthis kill 30 Yemeni troops in attacks on Marib, Hadramout

Houthi attacks on military camps in Marib and Hadramout killed at least 30 Saudi-backed Yemeni government troops, in the deadliest escalation in Yemen since 2022. Missiles and drones struck several government-run camps in central Yemen, putting the country’s southern war front back under strain.

Al Jazeera described the strikes as the fiercest military escalation in Yemen since 2022. The dead were members of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces, keeping the violence squarely inside the war that has run since 2015 between the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government. That conflict has been repeatedly reshaped by Saudi Arabia’s military intervention, as well as shifting alliances among government forces, southern separatists and UAE-backed factions.

The latest attacks also landed in a region already on edge. Reuters said Saudi Arabia expected imminent attacks from Iran’s allies, while Houthi threats and strikes involving Saudi Arabia and Red Sea shipping have kept the broader confrontation volatile. The combination leaves the risk of another cross-border clash between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia uncomfortably high.

In Washington, the same news cycle brought harder rhetoric on Iran. CBS News quoted Sen. Ted Cruz as saying Trump should seek “regime collapse,” and Cruz said in March that Iran’s regime needed to be “removed from power.” That language, paired with the fighting in Yemen, shows how quickly a battlefield attack in central Yemen can feed a wider regional escalation cycle, with Marib and Hadramout now tied again to the contest between Riyadh, the Houthis and Iran’s allies.