Officials in the oil-rich nation believe assaults could come from Iraqi militias and Yemeni Houthis in the coming days, both overseen by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC].
Saudi Arabia has close ties to the US, as the pair teamed up to carry out air strikes in Iraq on Iranian-supported groups on July 29.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday morning (August 7) he believed his country’s war on Iran will ‘end pretty soon’ after halting military action to allow peace talks to continue. It also emerged this week that American army officials believe they have used the majority of their highly accurate long-range missiles.
But the conflict could take a new turn soon, according to one Saudi official, who believes important infrastructure could be hit.
“I think they want to coordinate attacks from both north and south,” the official told CNN.
The potential targets were “mostly civilian and economic installations,” they added, namely energy facilities, ports and airports.
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and its neighbour Yemen have risen again in recent weeks after Yemeni Houthis claimed responsibility for a range of attacks on Saudi shipping and military targets. Eleven civilians, including a four-year-old child, were injured in Saudi Arabia on Thursday after a series of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, according to the Saudi military.
The attacks, which took place in the southern region of Najran, near the Yemeni border, came hours after the Iran-backed rebels claimed responsibility for another series of strikes in central and eastern Yemen that killed at least 30 government troops and wounded at least 50 others.
A Houthi leader said Saudi-backed troops were targeted in the attacks and that “hundreds” were either killed or injured. The assaults hit camps for forces of the internationally recognized government in the provinces of Marib and Hadramout, the Yemeni officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Saudi Arabia has also hit military targets in Yemen in recent days. It led a military coalition against the Houthis in northern Yemen in 2015, with the conflict coming to an end in 2022 amid a humanitarian crisis.
It comes as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to sign joint defense agreement in Saudi Arabia, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that a Saudi-led military coalition backing Yemen’s official government blamed a separate shelling attack in Saudi territory on the Houthis, saying 11 civilians had been injured in the Najran border region.