Yemen in Focus: Houthis escalate attacks, infiltrate Saudi kingdom

The rebels said they seized more than 20 positions inside Saudi Arabia, with rebel officials promising to release video footage of the daring attack later this week.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarei told the rebel-run SABA news agency that fighters crossed over the border to seize Saudi military positions in the kingdom’s southwestern Najran province.

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Houthi forces carried out a “surprise attack along three separate axes” over a 72-hour period, Sarei said, claiming that 200 Saudi troops were killed in the offensives and that military equipment was seized by the rebels.

“We have extensive video footage of the operation which will be broadcast later,” Sarei said, according to Al Jazeera.

The attack came after Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – viewed as the architect of the Saudi-led coalition intervention in Yemen – visited troops on the border earlier this week.

While there has been no independent verification of the claims, recent events have shown not all Houthi claimed attacks are mere hearsay.

Last month the Houthis released footage from a drone attack on Abu Dhabi International Airport that was conducted last year, after months of denials from UAE authorities.

At the time, Abu Dhabi airport said in a tweet that there had been an “incident involving a supply vehicle” but that the airport remained fully operational.

The UAE maintained that no drone attack had taken place at the airport.

The Houthis, however, have repeatedly warned that they have the capability to strike locations as far from Yemen as the Saudi capital Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi and Dubai.