Story by Lily Shanagher
Houthi rebels have launched attacks across Saudi Arabia, injuring more than 70 people and bringing some power plants to a standstill.
At least 73 people, including women and children, were wounded, said Maj Gen Turki Al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led Coalition Forces.
He described the attacks as “senseless” and accused Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels of targeting “civilian and economic sites” in the cities of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran.
The Saudi energy ministry said the attacks had caused fires at several sites in the southern region, temporarily halting some operations.
Maj Gen Al-Maliki said the Saudi-led Joint Forces Command of the Coalition – which has been fighting the rebels during the civil war in Yemen – “will take all necessary operational measures to deter the terrorist Houthi militia with utmost resolve”.
Despite efforts to stay out of the US war with Iran, Saudi Arabia faced missile attacks from the Houthis in July, ending a fragile four-year ceasefire between the rebel group and the kingdom.
The conflict has been ramping up since then, with Houthis declaring a blockade of Saudi shipping using the Red Sea in retaliation for the US blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Drone and missile attacks have targeted refineries on the Red Sea coast operated by Saudi oil giant Aramco.
The rebel group launched Tuesday’s attacks hours after blaming Saudi Arabia for an air strike that hit a prison in Yemen’s northern province of Jawf, which they said killed seven people, including a child visiting the site and wounded seven others.
Houthis accuse Saudi Arabia of striking a prison in Yemen’s northern province of Jawf – AFP/ANSARULLAH MEDIA CENTRE
Nasr al-Din Amer, a member of the Houthis’ politburo, said on social media that the “ongoing, in-depth response far exceeds what is being circulated on social media and is much broader” 
On the ground, more than 300 people have died in the fighting near the Red Sea on Yemen’s west coast as rebels try to capture land bordering the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a shipping artery located between Yemen and Djibouti and Eritrea that has become vital for Saudi oil exports.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile.
Vessels travel through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait – AFP/Khaled ZIAD
A Saudi-led coalition, including the United Arab Emirates, intervened the next year to try to restore the government to power.
The conflict, which has pitted the Houthis against the internationally recognised government, has seen the rebels take over most of Yemen’s major population centres, including Sanaa.
Tensions rose earlier this year between US allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE as their partnership in the war in Yemen broke down, leading to the UAE pulling out of the country.
The Houthis then launched missile attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport in July in response to an attack on Sanaa Airport, ending the de facto ceasefire.
The civil war in Yemen has killed at least 150,000 people, according to United Nations estimates, and at times pushed the country to the brink of famine.
