• 115 govt troops, 160 Houthi fighters killed in 24 hours
• Rebels claim attack on Riyadh airport, deny losing territory
• Riyadh claims intercepting missile
• Over 184,000 people displaced by fighting
• Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia urged to avoid sharing sensitive footage
SANAA: Fighting across Yemen has killed more than 270 government troops and Houthi fighters over the past day, sources on both sides said on Tuesday.
Houthis also claimed an attack on the Saudi capital’s main airport and on Tuesday denied being pushed back by government forces.
Fighting has intensified in Yemen since the internationally recognised government launched a counter-offensive aimed at recovering territory seized by Houthi fighters last month.
Government sources told AFP on condition of anonymity that 115 troops had died over the past 24 hours, and that dozens of others were wounded in fighting, and by Houthi missile and drone attacks.
The focus of the violence is on southwest Yemen, around the Bab al-Mandab strait that is crucial to global energy flows.
Houthi military sources meanwhile told AFP that they had lost 160 fighters over the past day, mainly in Saudi strikes on areas under their control.
On Monday, the Houthis said they had struck Riyadh airport and a refinery belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco.
Loud explosions rattled the Saudi capital on Monday evening. They were followed by another explosion on Tuesday that echoed through northern parts of the city, residents said.
Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport is facing frequent temporary closures of its airspace, according to tracking website Flightradar24.
Saudi authorities have not publicly acknowledged the closures or confirmed any strikes targeting the facility.
But on Tuesday the civil aviation authority said at least three people were wounded in attacks on Jazan and Najran airports near the Yemen border a day earlier.
The Saudi-led coalition also said on Tuesday that its forces intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis at the kingdom’s southwest.
The coalition’s spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki said on X it “intercepted and destroyed” the missile launched towards Khamis Mushait, which is home to an airbase.
Meanwhile, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group still held all territory seized last month when they swept through coastal areas along the Red Sea.
Houthi fighters “have full control over all their advances on the ground”, he posted on Telegram.
Saree said they had carried out dozens of strikes in the past few hours targeting government forces in Yemen’s Al-Jawf and Marib regions, while also attacking Taiz governorate.
The Houthis’ health ministry said on Tuesday that a Saudi air strike killed six members of the same family, including four children, in a village in Hajjah governorate, bordering Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia, the main backer of the Yemeni government, has been providing air support for the counter-offensive launched by government forces.
‘Mocha is a war zone’
Government forces claimed late on Monday that they had achieved “victories on several fronts”. But military sources with the government refrained from confirming Mocha’s recapture, only saying they had cut the one supply route to the area.
They also said they expelled the Houthis from several areas in Taiz in the southwest, where fighting has surged in recent days.
Mohammed, a 33-year-old charity worker who fled from Mocha to Aden, said “people there are terrified”.
“Life in Mocha has come to a complete standstill — there is no movement at all. The city has become a war zone,” he told AFP.
Yemen’s government has announced a goal of retaking all Houthi territory — home to most of the country’s population, and much of it held for more than a decade.
Yemen’s civil war flared up again in July after years of relative calm, opening a new front in the wider Middle East war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February.
The Houthis last month seized control of Yemen’s entire western coastline along the Red Sea in the country’s deadliest fighting in years.
They have regularly targeted oil and military installations in Saudi Arabia and declared a maritime blockade on its ships.
Pakistan and Turkiye on Monday pledged to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defence pact following weeks of Houthi attacks.
The Yemen conflict caused a major humanitarian crisis that left most of the population dependent on aid.
The Houthis’ campaign around the Red Sea coast forced more than 184,000 people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned by the sharp escalation in fighting”. He condemned Houthi cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Pakistanis in KSA cautioned
Pakistan Ulema Council Chairman Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi on Tuesday urged Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia to exercise caution and refrain from sharing images or videos of Houthi drone and missile attacks, interception operations, debris, security installations or other sensitive locations.
He asked the community to comply with Saudi laws and official directives, avoid circulating unverified information or rumours and rely only on official Saudi sources for information about security incidents.
Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2026
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