Aden (South24 Center)

Southern forces repelled Houthi attacks and struck positions held by the Iran-aligned Houthi militia across South Yemen’s northern fronts on Friday and early Saturday, as fighting intensified from Bab Al-Mandab and Lahj to Al-Dhalea and Shabwa, military sources said.

Four members of the Southern forces and allied tribal fighters were killed in clashes in Al-Mudaribah District, Lahj Governorate, while a fifth Southern soldier was killed in a Houthi drone strike in Shabwa.

Sources told South24 Center that the four killed in Friday’s clashes in Lahj (September 18) included two Southern soldiers and two tribesmen from Al-Aghbarah.

The sources said Southern forces, backed by local tribesmen, had repelled a Houthi infiltration attempt toward the Al-Dhahoura and Al-Saybara positions in the Al-Aghbarah sector of Al-Mudaribah District.

A soldier from the Al-Subaiha tribes was wounded in separate clashes on the Al-Mushrif front.

The Houthi militia also indiscriminately shelled villages and other areas in Al-Mudaribah with artillery as fighting that began on Thursday morning continued, according to the sources.

The Houthis, for their part, announced that several of their fighters had been killed during the latest escalation but did not identify the fronts where they died or when they were killed.

In Al-Dhalea, military sources told South24 Center that Southern forces fired Katyusha rockets at Houthi gatherings and military vehicles in the Beit Al-Sharji area north of the governorate at dawn on Saturday (September 19).

In Shabwa, South24 sources said a soldier from the Fifth Brigade of the Shabwa Defense Forces was killed in a Houthi drone strike on a military position on the Markha Al-Ulya front.

On the Kahboub front in Bab Al-Mandab, the media director of the Southern Giants Brigades said a Houthi commander and several of his escorts were killed in an airstrike.

The Southern Giants Brigades also released footage that it said showed precision strikes targeting Houthi vehicles and gatherings, inflicting casualties and material losses on the group.

Separately, circulating footage showed a drone flying over Sanaa on Thursday morning as Houthi forces attempted to shoot it down.

The escalation along South Yemen’s northern fronts coincided with growing regional and international concern over the expansion of Houthi attacks beyond Yemen.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said an Italian F-2000 Eurofighter was hit during attacks on King Fahd Air Base in Taif, Saudi Arabia.

Crosetto said the aircraft was stationed in a remote section of the base and that no Italian military personnel were injured. Italy maintains an air task force at the base for air-defense and regional surveillance missions.

Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said the multinational maritime defense coalition had moved from its establishment phase to active operations after reaching operational readiness, amid mounting Houthi threats to shipping in the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, saying they were undermining the global economy.

She said Europe was helping protect shipping in the Red Sea and that the EU’s Operation Aspides naval mission had raised its alert level.

The latest fighting follows the Houthis’ seizure of large areas along the West Coast near Bab Al-Mandab, shifting military pressure toward South Yemen’s northern contact lines.

The Houthi advance and renewed fighting have displaced at least 112,000 people inside Yemen over the past two weeks, while nearly 3,000 others have fled by sea to Djibouti, according to the International Organization for Migration.