Yemen conflict continues without pause

By Nathan Morley

Saudi Arabia carried out 19 airstrikes across three Yemeni provinces over the past 24 hours, Yemen's Houthi group has said, as the confrontation between the Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-backed movement continues to escalate.

Houthi-run media reported that at least 17 people were killed and 11 wounded in the latest strikes, which hit the south-western province of Taiz, the northern province of Al-Jawf, and the oil-rich north-eastern province of Marib.

Separately, reports emerged of a suspected US drone strike on a vehicle carrying two suspected al-Qaida members in Yemen's south-eastern Hadramaut province.

The strikes come amid a sharp deterioration in hostilities, with Saudi Arabia targeting Houthi-held territory across Yemen while the group has responded by launching missiles and drones deep into Saudi territory.

As fighting intensifies, growing numbers of Yemenis have been forced to flee their homes, compounding what is already one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said the conflict "is expanding across multiple frontlines", with more than 130,000 people displaced since the beginning of September alone.

The latest wave of displacement follows a rapid advance by Houthi fighters down Yemen's western coast towards the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, in clashes with Saudi-backed government forces.

UNHCR said the vast majority of those newly displaced were women and children, many of whom had already been uprooted multiple times over the course of the war.

The conflict in Yemen erupted in late 2014, when Houthi forces seized the capital, Sana'a, along with much of northern Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year in support of Yemen's internationally recognised government, launching a military campaign that has since drawn in regional and international powers.

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