SANAA, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Warplanes launched a new round of airstrikes on Yemen's Houthi-held capital Sanaa on Friday afternoon, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported, attributing the attacks to what it called "Saudi aggression."
Residents told Xinhua that a series of powerful airstrikes hit sites in southern and western Sanaa, with explosions reverberating across the capital as warplanes flew intensively overhead.
The locations and nature of the targets were not immediately clear, and there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The latest strikes came amid a rapidly intensifying exchange of attacks between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, with the group stepping up missile strikes against the kingdom and Saudi Arabia intensifying airstrikes on Houthi-held areas in Yemen.
Meanwhile, heavy fighting has continued between the Houthis and government forces, supported by the Saudi-led coalition, in southwestern Yemen, particularly near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Earlier on Friday, Yemeni government forces renewed an offensive against Houthi positions near Bab al-Mandab, seeking to expand recent gains and push deeper into Houthi-held areas overlooking the vital international shipping route, a government military official told Xinhua.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new push began on Friday morning from positions in Dhubab district in southwestern Yemen's Taiz province.
The official claimed that dozens of Houthi fighters had been killed in Friday's clashes, adding that government forces had called on Houthi fighters remaining in the area to surrender.
The al-Masirah TV, however, gave a conflicting account, saying Houthi forces had repelled government troops advancing from the neighboring province of Lahj toward the southern approaches to Bab al-Mandab, claiming dozens of casualties among the advancing forces and the destruction or disabling of several military vehicles.
Yemen has been embroiled in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and much of the north. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government, now based in the southern port city of Aden.
The renewed fighting marked a major escalation after a UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted major hostilities.■
