Iran-backed Houthis fire missiles at Saudi Arabia in response to airstrikes in Yemen

CAIRO (AP) -- Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said Saturday that they fired missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia in response to Saudi airstrikes on the strategic Red Sea city of Hodeida, in an escalation over vital shipping routes in the Middle East while the United States and Iran vie for control of the Strait of Hormuz. Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the Houthis' military spokesperson, said in a prerecorded statement that the attack targeted facilities in the Red Sea cities of Yanbu and Jizan that belong to Aramco, the world's largest oil company. Saudi Arabia's civil defense said alerts sounded multiple times early Saturday in both cities, but the kingdom didn't comment further. There were no reported strikes overnight in Iran, in an apparent break from nearly two weeks of consecutive nights of U.S. attacks. The Houthis have said they would close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping in retaliation for the kingdom's blockade on Yemen and a recent attack on the international airport in Yemen's rebel-held capital, Sanaa. Nothing short of ending the aggression and lifting the blockade, otherwise, it's all illusion and mirage, Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthi-led Supreme Political Council governing rebel-controlled territories in Yemen, said of what it would take for the Houthis to not blockade the Bab-El-Mandeb. That strait, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is a vital shipping chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Around 12 percent of the world's trade, including a quarter of its container traffic, passes through the narrows. The Houthis targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea this week. In response, Saudi Arabia struck Hodeida, the Saudi-led coalition opposing the rebels said Saturday. The strikes late Friday hit the port and the state-run telecommunications corporation, injuring two people, said Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry. The Saudi-led coalition said it didn't hit the port but struck legitimate military targets in Hodeida province that were linked to threats to commercial vessels in the Red Sea. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, called for diplomacy and dialogue to solve the Yemen conflict without military confrontations in an interview published Saturday by the state-run newspaper called Iran. Iran had a peaceful night, Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for Iran's Health Ministry, posted on X. U.S. Central Command didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Unlike the previous 13 nights, it didn't announce new strikes.