Saudi coalition downs Houthi missile as Yemen's al-Jawf fighting intensifies

The Saudi-led coalition says its air defences took out a ballistic missile headed for southern Saudi Arabia, with spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki announcing the intercept on Monday. A day earlier, he said defences had destroyed a drone launched at the same region. Saudi Civil Defence briefly issued alerts about 'potential danger' in Abha and the provinces of Khamis Mushait, Taif and Najran before lifting them, and told residents not to film or share information about missile and drone attacks.

Across the border, a Houthi-affiliated outlet reported that seven people were wounded in coalition air strikes on Hodeidah along the Red Sea coast. Four were hurt at the Ras Isa port dock and three others at an oil company site in Bajil district, according to the Houthi media reports. The coalition has not commented on those accounts.

The fighting is fiercest in the northern governorate of al-Jawf, where government forces are pressing to claw back ground from the Iran-aligned Houthis. Yemeni army spokesman Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nazili said Sunday that his forces carried out 1,272 'targeting operations' against Houthi fighters, fortifications and weapons supplies in a 24-hour stretch. He claimed roughly 500 Houthi fighters were killed and nearly 170 vehicles, pieces of equipment or heavy weapons were destroyed or disabled, with operations continuing in al-Jawf, neighbouring Marib and al-Bayda to the south. Al Jazeera said it could not independently verify the claims.

In the southwest, the Houthis are still choking off Taiz, blocking food, fuel and medical supplies from reaching Yemen's third-largest city and its roughly one million residents. Taiz Governor Nabil Shamsan says 120 health centres have already shut down and another 66 are on the brink of closing since supply routes were cut in early October. He is calling for urgent help as the city's health facilities deteriorate.

Nour al-Din al-Mansouri, of the committee supporting the Taiz Siege Affairs Office, told Al Jazeera that at least 23 trucks were damaged or overturned over the past two weeks as drivers hunted for alternate routes into the city.

Full-scale fighting reignited in September when the Houthis made key gains and tightened their hold on the Red Sea coast. Yemen's internationally recognised government answered last month with a campaign dubbed Operation Dawn of Yemen, aiming to retake Houthi-held sites and restore control over other territory. The Houthis seized the capital Sanaa back in 2014.