Yemeni army pushes back Houthi fighters near Saudi frontier amid new clashes

Yemeni government forces clashed with Houthi fighters along the Saudi border, with one outlet-captured video showing armored trucks and soldiers firing machine guns, artillery and RPGs. Operations commander Waleed Al-Mahajeri told reporters that the First Division Emergency Forces were advancing on the Al-Labanat front and that Houthi militias were fleeing across multiple fronts. Soldiers reported liberating Al-Masariya Hill and the Al-Labanat camp and continued moving toward Al-Tebab al-Soud.

In response, the Houthis released footage from the Al-Jawf area, including night-vision scenes of a projectile striking a Saudi fighter jet, which they claimed to have downed using a homemade missile. The group also showed fighters firing from pickup trucks as they moved across the desert. This renewed fighting follows a period of relative calm since 2022, during which the Houthis had seized the Red Sea coast, strategic islands in the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the capital Sanaa, prompting Saudi airstrikes that have so far failed to reverse their gains.