Yemen’s Houthis strike at Israel in their first such attack since Iran war began

By Menna AlaaElDin, Nayera Abdallah and Humeyra Pamuk

CAIRO/DUBAI, March 28 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis launched missiles at Israel on Saturday, their first such attack since the start of the Iran war, heightening the risk that a conflict now in its fifth week could expand further across the region.

Speaking before the strike, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States expected to conclude military operations within weeks. The Houthis said they would continue their operations until the “aggression” on all fronts ended.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke to Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, whose government hosts a meeting with the Turkish and Saudi foreign ministers on Sunday to seek to ease regional tensions.

But there is no sign of an immediate diplomatic breakthrough and the war, launched with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and hitting the world economy with the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies.

On Saturday, Israel said it had carried out a wave of attacks on Tehran, targeting what the military said were infrastructure sites belonging to Iran’s government.

It also hit targets in Lebanon, where it has resumed its war against Iran-backed Hezbollah, killing three Lebanese journalists in a strike on a media vehicle, Lebanon’s Al Manar TV reported, as well as a Lebanese soldier.

Iran kept up attacks on Israel and several Gulf states after hitting an air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday and wounding 12 U.S. military personnel, two of them seriously, in one of the most serious breaches of U.S. air defences so far.

HOUTHIS CAN STRIKE TARGETS FAR FROM YEMEN

Israel, which regularly faced missile attacks from the Houthis before the war, confirmed a missile had been fired at it from Yemen. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

The attack pointed to a potential new threat to global shipping, already hit by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

The Houthis have shown an ability to strike targets far beyond Yemen and disrupt shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, as they did in support of Hamas in the Gaza war.

On Friday they said they were prepared to act if what they called an escalation against Iran and the “Axis of Resistance” continued in the war.

If the Houthis open a new front in the conflict, one target could be the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the coast of Yemen, a chokepoint for sea ​traffic towards the Suez Canal.

With midterm elections due in November, the increasingly unpopular war has weighed on President Donald Trump’s Republican Party and he has appeared eager to end it soon, while also threatening escalation.

Demonstrators took to city streets across the U.S. on Saturday in the third “No Kings” rallies, described by organizers as a call to action against the war on Iran.

Rubio said on Friday that military operations were expected to be concluded in “weeks, not months” and echoed Trump’s calls on European and Asian countries to help secure free passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said on Friday the lack of support from NATO allies had implications for the military alliance. U.S. allies have been reluctant to be drawn into a war which could escalate if Trump decides to deploy ground troops to try to open the strait.

Rubio said the U.S. could achieve its aims without ground troops but acknowledged it was deploying some to the region “to give the president maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to adjust the contingencies, should they emerge”.

Washington has dispatched two contingents of thousands of Marines to the region, the first of which arrived on Friday on a huge amphibious assault ship, the U.S. military said in a social media post on Saturday. The Pentagon is also expected to deploy thousands of elite airborne soldiers.

MORE STRIKES WHILE TRUMP SPEAKS OF NEGOTIATIONS

Financial markets have reacted with alarm at signs the war may drag on.

The Brent crude oil benchmark is up more than 50% since the war began and in the U.S., where Trump is politically vulnerable to rising fuel prices, diesel in California hit a record average high, the American Automobile Association said.

Trump has threatened to hit Iranian power stations and other energy infrastructure if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz. But he has extended a deadline he had imposed for this week, giving Iran another 10 days to respond.

Israel has targeted Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, and the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom, which has evacuated staff from the Bushehr nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast, said the attacks threatened nuclear safety.

Pezeshkian said Iran would “retaliate strongly if our infrastructure or economic centers are targeted”.

“To the countries of the region: If you want development and security, don’t let our enemies run the war from your lands,” he said.

Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey have relayed messages between the warring sides although Tehran has said it has not been negotiating with Washington. Two people familiar with the back-channel efforts expressed doubt that direct talks would take place soon.

Iran attacked several countries across the Gulf, including Kuwait’s International Airport, where drones caused significant damage to its radar system.

Fires were reported near the Khalifa container port in the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi after a missile was intercepted, while in Oman’s Salalah port, a worker was injured.

In Iran, media said at least five people were killed in a U.S.-Israeli attack on a residential unit in the northwestern city of Zanjan and in Tehran, the Iran University of Science and Technology was struck.

In Israel, the village of Eshtaol, near Jerusalem, was hit by an Iranian missile. Seven people were hospitalized, Israel’s ambulance service said.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Lincoln Feast and James Mackenzie; Editing by William Mallard, Edwina Gibbs, Keith Weir and Timothy Heritage)