Aden (South24 Center)

---

Saudi Arabia said on Thursday (September 24) that its air defenses had intercepted and destroyed six ballistic missiles launched by the Iran-aligned Houthi militia toward Taif and Yanbu. The announcement came as fighting continued on several fronts in Lahj, Taiz and Al-Dhalea governorates.

Saudi military spokesman Major General Turki Al-Maliki said the six missiles had been intercepted and destroyed, thwarting an attempt to target Taif and Yanbu. Saudi Civil Defense authorities had earlier issued alerts in Taif, Makkah, Tabuk, Jeddah and Yanbu before announcing that the danger had passed.

Riyadh continues to officially present Al-Maliki as the spokesman for the “Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen,” despite the coalition’s effective dissolution following the withdrawal of the UAE, its last active member, from Yemen in late December 2025.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement published Thursday that the group had carried out a “preemptive military operation” using dozens of ballistic missiles and drones. He said it targeted operations and command rooms, weapons depots and other sites in the Al-Tuwal area of Jazan, as well as missile launch platforms at Al-Daghareer camp and other camps in the area.

Saree claimed the attack had killed or wounded hundreds of personnel among the forces targeted, including Yemenis and Sudanese, as well as dozens of Saudi military personnel, and had destroyed weapons depots. South24 Center could not independently verify the reported casualties or the toll he gave, and there was no immediate Saudi response to the claims. The Houthi statement did not say that the attack it announced in Jazan was the same one whose missiles Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted en route to Taif and Yanbu.

In Lahj, local sources told South24 Center that four civilians were killed and eight people, including three soldiers, were injured when four ballistic missiles struck areas of Al-Mudaribah and Ras Al-Arah District on Wednesday evening. The sources said the missiles hit Al-Malabiyah and Al-Ruwais and the vicinity of Al-Haymah Market.

Amr bin Al-As School in Al-Malabiyah, which was sheltering families displaced by nearby fighting, was among the sites struck. A local source said five civilians were injured in the strike on the school, while three soldiers were wounded in a separate strike near Al-Haymah Market.

The Lahj local authority confirmed that two ballistic missiles had struck the school and called on the United Nations and international organizations to document the attack and help protect civilians and displaced families.

The strikes coincided with exchanges of artillery fire between Southern Forces and the Houthis on the Qarin front in Al-Musaymir District, northern Lahj, according to a military source who spoke to South24. In Al-Dhalea, a South24 correspondent reported artillery exchanges on the Torsa front in Al-Azariq. Three Southern Forces members killed in earlier fighting on the Al-Mudaribah and Bab al-Mandab fronts were also buried in Al-Dhalea.

In western Taiz, the National Resistance’s military media said its forces had clashed with the Houthis in several sectors, including the Jardad and Rasen mountains. It said four of its soldiers and 15 Houthi fighters had been killed, with others wounded.

Near the road linking Taiz and Aden through Heijat Al-Abed, the Yemeni Ministry of Defense said government-aligned forces had repelled Houthi attacks in Al-Hujaim and stopped an attempted infiltration toward the road. After the road was temporarily closed early Thursday, military authorities said it was safe and passable again.

Government military media said Giants Brigades units had helped repel infiltration attempts toward Wadi Al-Maqatirah and the road linking Taiz and Aden. It also reported shooting down a Houthi drone over Taiz’s Jabal Habashi District.

Meanwhile, Houthi media alleged that Saudi forces had fired more than 45 shells and missiles into border areas of Razih District in Saada Governorate over the preceding 24 hours.

They also claimed that a girl had been injured in Al-Hajlah and that an airstrike had targeted a communications network in Qatabir District.

The widening fighting is driving a new wave of displacement. The UN refugee agency said on Tuesday that more than 130,000 people had fled their homes in Yemen since the beginning of September, with Taiz accounting for more than 60 percent of the displacement.

A UN briefing said the number of newly displaced people inside Yemen could exceed 230,000 in the coming weeks if the fighting continues.

In a statement issued Thursday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said ground fighting, artillery fire and airstrikes, including drone and missile strikes, had killed or injured at least 125 civilians since a new wave of attacks began in August.

His office said it had documented the deaths of 32 civilians, including 15 children and three women. Türk urged all parties to distinguish between civilians and combatants and to take every feasible measure to minimize civilian harm.

The attacks and clashes follow Houthi advances along Yemen’s western coast toward Bab al-Mandab. Fighting has since spread to several inland fronts, while renewed missile attacks on Saudi Arabia and rising displacement have heightened concerns over the conflict’s toll on civilians.