SANAA - Yemen's Houthi group said Sunday that Saudi warplanes had carried out 26 airstrikes across five Yemeni provinces over the past 24 hours, while government forces said they had conducted hundreds of attacks against Houthi military targets in the past three days.
In a statement posted on social media platform X, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said that Saudi F-15 fighter jets operating from Khamis Mushait Air Base carried out the strikes on Taiz, Al-Jawf, Marib, Dhamar and Saada provinces.
Sarea said the strikes caused casualties but gave no detailed toll, adding that they brought the number of Saudi airstrikes and missile attacks since the current escalation began to 1,085, a figure that could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, Yemeni government forces said Sunday that they had carried out 756 attacks against Houthi positions, personnel, and military capabilities across several areas of Yemen over the previous 72 hours.
Majid al-Nuzaili, a spokesperson for the government forces, said in a statement on X that the operations destroyed or disabled military vehicles, missile launchers, weapons depots and other equipment.
Al-Nuzaili said that 2,316 Houthi fighters were killed or wounded in the operations.
There was no immediate response from the Houthis to the government forces' claims.
In another development, Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported At least seven people were killed and 40 others wounded in airstrikes in Yemen's southwestern province of Taiz on Sunday.
Warplanes struck shops at the Central Market in Al-Ta'iziyah district, east of Taiz city, describing the casualties as civilians and blaming Saudi Arabia for the attack, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Yemeni government forces gave a different account, saying in a statement on social media platform X that "our warplanes launched strikes" targeting a Houthi military camp and armored vehicles in the same area.
A military source aligned with the Yemeni government told Xinhua that the strikes hit what was believed to be a Houthi military camp in the area, sending columns of smoke into the air and triggering secondary explosions.
"The strikes hit the camp as Houthi fighters and reinforcements were gathering there," the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that dozens of fighters were killed or wounded.
Fighting between Yemeni government forces and the Houthi group has intensified across southwestern Yemen recently after the group seized the strategic port city of Mocha and Mayyun Island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait earlier this month.
Yemen's conflict began in late 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government.
