Iran-Aligned Houthis Press Offensive as GCC Demands Response

Seven thousand ballistic missiles have targeted Gulf facilities since last February, Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi said Saturday. He condemned continued Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia as deliberate criminal behavior and called for a firm international stance. At the opening of the GCC Ministerial Council's 168th ministerial meeting in Bahrain, AlBudaiwi said the group's actions had hit civilian and energy facilities in the kingdom.

The number is staggering. Fighting on the ground shows no sign of slowing.

The Battlefield

Eight soldiers loyal to Yemen's internationally recognised government died in heavy clashes on the al-Maqatirah front in Lahij governorate, according to a statement from the government-affiliated Tur al-Bahah military axis. In Taiz governorate, government troops said they killed 12 Houthi fighters in al-Aqroud after days of fighting on the outskirts of Taiz city. Saudi Arabia-backed forces said they repelled Houthi advances there and inflicted heavy losses. Elsewhere in Taiz, government forces said they broke a Houthi attack on the al-Shaqab front.

The Homeland Shield Forces said a drone destroyed a Houthi supply vehicle in al-Wazziyah. The Southern Giants Brigades said they struck Houthi positions in al-Madaribah, near the Lahij border. In al-Jawf and Marib, government troops and allied Popular Resistance fighters pressed an offensive, using artillery barrages and drone strikes against Houthi positions, barracks and troop assemblies. Coalition aircraft bombed Houthi command hubs and supply depots.

The current escalation began last month, when the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast from forces loyal to the recognised government. Saudi-backed forces counterattacked, then launched the "Dawn of Yemen" operation to retake Houthi-held territory, including Sanaa. The Iran-aligned group has held the capital since 2014, now 12 years.

Cross-Border Threats

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group's air-defence forces downed a Saudi reconnaissance drone over Hajjah governorate. He identified it as a Turkish-manufactured Lentatek Karayel and said it was the fourth of its kind brought down since the latest escalation began. The Houthis also claimed they shot down a Saudi Apache helicopter in Najran. Saudi-led coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki gave a different account: an AH-6i reconnaissance helicopter crashed in Najran because of a technical malfunction, killing two crew members. Houthi media reported 10 Saudi air strikes on sites in Saada governorate.

Shipping lanes face danger, too. Off the coast of al-Mukalla, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said at least seven armed men aboard a skiff attacked a liquefied natural gas tanker, firing two shots. The tanker's onboard security detail returned two warning shots, and the attackers changed course. In a separate live update, UKMTO said a tug boat was struck by two projectiles off the UAE coast, while drones were intercepted over Riyadh and the Eastern Province. Details on those incidents remain thin.

Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani condemned attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and backed any measures Riyadh takes to defend itself. "Any attack on a GCC member state is an attack on all GCC states," he said. He also voiced support for Oman and Qatar's mediation efforts between the United States and Iran.

Diplomacy and the Human Toll

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran backed a "political process" to resolve the Saudi-Houthi conflict, according to a live update. The OIC's foreign ministers were meeting in Baghdad with regional crises on the agenda. The source material gave no further detail on either item. Tehran's stated support for talks sits alongside the Houthis' continuing missile and drone campaign against its Gulf rivals.

The civilian cost keeps mounting. The International Organization for Migration said more than 233,000 people have been displaced since fighting escalated, about 121,000 of them in Taiz governorate. The World Health Organization warned that Taiz city had become functionally isolated: its 12 hospitals had fuel for only four days, no surgical supplies and critical shortages of oxygen and medicine, amid a growing cholera outbreak. The UN Refugee Agency said more than 4,000 refugees had reached East Africa, 3,800 in Djibouti and roughly 200 in Somalia. At Djibouti's Markazi camp, health workers were treating 31 cholera cases, and one death had been recorded.

Why This Matters: The Houthi campaign shows how an Iran-aligned armed group can threaten a sovereign state's cities, energy infrastructure and commercial shipping from across a border. The GCC's tally of 7,000 ballistic missiles since last February, and its call for a firm international response, reflect Gulf states' view that the danger is shared, not local. Mediation by Oman and Qatar, and Iran's talk of a political process, may open a diplomatic track, but Riyadh and its allies are weighing those overtures against continued attacks on their territory. Yemeni civilians, displaced and facing cholera and collapsing hospitals, carry the heaviest burden of a war driven by armed factions that have rejected compromise.