Pakistani among 11 wounded in Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia as kingdom warns of wider threat

RIYADH: A Pakistani national was among 11 civilians wounded in a Houthi attack on southern Saudi Arabia on Thursday, a military official said, as the kingdom warned that coordinated attacks by the Houthis and Iran-backed Iraqi militias were imminent.

Major General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government, said early Friday that the attack in southern Najran Province injured seven Saudi nationals, one Yemeni, two Egyptians and one Pakistani. The wounded also included a four-year-old child who suffered second-degree burns. Maliki accused the Iran-aligned Houthis of indiscriminately shelling civilian areas in violation of international humanitarian law, and said the coalition would continue taking all necessary measures to protect civilians.

Riyadh is seeking to deepen security cooperation with key allies while warning of an expanding regional threat from Iran-backed groups. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were due to sign a defence agreement in the kingdom on Friday, two regional sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Details of the agreement, however, were not immediately available.

Saudi Arabia already has a defence cooperation agreement with Pakistan. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in the kingdom on Thursday, while Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was due to arrive on Friday. Field Marshal Asim Munir is also accompanying PM Shehbaz on the visit.

There was no immediate response from the Houthis or Iran, as the five-month-old US-Israeli war with Tehran continues to complicate Saudi Arabia’s security calculus. Riyadh’s decade-long conflict with the Houthis has increasingly become entangled with the broader regional war, with Houthi actions, including a Red Sea blockade that has disrupted Saudi oil exports, raising the stakes of the wider confrontation.

A senior Saudi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saudi, U.S. and other Middle Eastern countries’ intelligence found that the Houthis and Iraqi militias under the supervision of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could soon launch coordinated attacks on Saudi civilian sites including energy infrastructure, ports and airports.

The Saudi official said the reported threats were alarming as Riyadh continued to support de-escalation and a negotiated settlement of the conflict with Iran, adding that mediation efforts appeared to be moving “in the right direction.”

The official said the planned attacks could be intended to disrupt the diplomacy. The official said Saudi-U.S. cooperation remained “very high” at all levels, including operationally with U.S. Central Command, and said Saudi Arabia was prepared to take all necessary measures to respond to any aggression.

The Houthis claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack on Najran airport, part of a broader escalation in which the Iran-aligned group has struck Saudi military, infrastructure and shipping targets.

They also killed more than 30 Yemeni government troops on Thursday after attacking what they described as Saudi military deployments in the Yemeni provinces of Marib and Hadramout.

On July 29, Saudi Arabia said it carried out strikes with U.S. Central Command against Iran-backed groups in Iraq after blaming them for drone attacks on its oil facilities. Iraqi militias said they would respond to the Saudi strikes.