Yémen : au moins 38 soldats tués, les rebelles houthis revendiquent les attaques

At least 58 members of the Yemeni government forces were killed on Thursday in a coordinated barrage of drone and missile strikes launched by Houthi rebels, marking the deadliest single escalation since a United Nations-brokered truce took effect in 2022, according to reports from La Presse and Ici Radio-Canada. Initial reports released by medical sources to Agence France-Presse cited a lower toll of 38 dead and 29 wounded, but subsequent military updates confirmed the higher death toll alongside dozens of additional injuries.

The strikes tore through military installations deep within Yemen, hitting a key base in the central province of Marib as well as positions in Hadramout province near the Saudi border, as detailed by TF1 Info. The violence shattered a fragile four-year cessation of hostilities in the impoverished country, where a civil war originally broke out in 2014 when the insurgent movement seized the capital, Sanaa, prompting a regional intervention led by Riyadh the following year.

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Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for the operation in an official statement, characterizing the large-scale assaults as a defensive reaction against what he termed a significant military buildup by Saudi-backed government forces, as reported by Defimedia. Conversely, the internationally recognized Yemeni Ministry of Defense condemned the offensive as an aggression and vowed that its armed forces would retaliate at a time and place of their choosing, echoed by Bluewin.

In Saudi Arabia's southern border region of Najran, cross-border shelling attributed to the group struck civilian targets, wounding 11 individuals—including a four-year-old child, two Egyptian nationals, a Yemeni, and a Pakistani citizen. General Turki al-Malki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition, denounced the incident as a terrorist aggression against civilians and pledged that the coalition would persist in taking all necessary deterrent measures.

These developments unfold against the backdrop of a broader regional conflagration sparked last month when an Iranian aircraft landed in Sanaa from Tehran, an event that challenged Saudi Arabia's historical dominance over Yemeni airspace and reignited hostilities that are closely tied to the wider confrontation between the United States and Iran. Parallel to the land-based engagements, the Houthi movement has intensified economic warfare through a naval blockade declared in July. Following Wednesday's reported attacks on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, shipping channels face mounting disruptions that compound global energy pressures already strained by the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

As regional tensions reach a critical juncture, military and government sources in Saudi Arabia indicate that the fallout from these events will converge in Jeddah, where Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif are scheduled to convene on Friday to sign a mutual defense agreement.

Anatomy of a Broken Truce

According to reports from Ici Radio-Canada, the escalation follows a pattern of deteriorating stability that began earlier in the summer. A previous confrontation occurred in early July, when 16 soldiers lost their lives during an insurgent raid south of the western port city of Hodeida against forces loyales au gouvernement, d'après des sources médicales. That earlier engagement, verified by medical sources, already signaled the erosion of the calm that had largely held since the United Nations-brokered agreement initiated in 2022.

Chronology of Major Casualties and Engagements

Date / Period	Event	Reported Casualties	Source
Early July 2026	Houthi attack south of Hodeida	16 soldiers killed	Le Figaro, TF1 Info
Wednesday, August 2026	Naval drone/missile strikes on tankers	Two Saudi oil tankers targeted in Red Sea and Gulf of Aden	La Presse, Ici Radio-Canada
Thursday, 6 August 2026	Coordinated drone and missile barrage	At least 58 government soldiers killed, dozens wounded	La Presse, Ici Radio-Canada, Le Figaro
Thursday, 6 August 2026	Cross-border shelling on Najran	11 civilians wounded (including a 4-year-old child)	Bluewin, La Presse

As detailed in military briefings cited by Ici Radio-Canada, the decision by regional actors to accelerate diplomatic coordination stems directly from these compounding security threats. Sources close to the military and government in Saudi Arabia confirmed to the AFP that while a tripartite defense pact had been under discussion for an extended period, the recent intensification of cross-border and maritime warfare dramatically compressed the timeline for its enactment. The coming summit in Jeddah represents the next step for Riyadh, Ankara, and Islamabad as they seek to formalize mutual security guarantees in response to the widening Persian Gulf crisis.