A WAVE of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi-led forces on Saudi Arabia today wounded more than 70 people and ignited fires at several oil facilities and utilities in the kingdom’s southern region, according to authorities.

The attacks come after weeks of escalating clashes between the Yemenis and the rival Saudi-backed forces in Yemen, which shattered a four-year truce in the country’s civil war.

The flare-up delivered a new jolt to a region already destabilised by nearly three years of wars and brought more uncertainty for the global economy.

The fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Yemenis threatens to squeeze shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a critical route of the Arabian Peninsula for oil and global trade.

It also comes at a time when the illegal and unprovoked war launched by the United States and Israel on Iran has nearly halted shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil transited before the war.

Fighting has raged on multiple fronts including Yemen’s west coast, with Yemen’s rival forces saying they have made territorial gains in the provinces of Hodeida, Taiz and Baydah.

Yemen’s Houthi-led forces have also launched attacks on Saudi oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.

The attacks early on Tuesday hit “civilian and economic facilities” in the Saudi cities of Abha, Jazan, Najran and Khamis Mushait, said Major General Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

General Malki said the attacks wounded 73 people, including women and children. He didn’t provide further details.

The attacks ignited fires at several oil facilities and utilities in Saudi Arabia’s southern region, the kingdom’s Energy Ministry said in a statement.

General Malki called the attacks a “serious escalation” and a “flagrant violation of the kingdom’s sovereignty, and a direct threat to the security and safety of its citizens and residents.”

He vowed that the Saudi-led coalition “will take all necessary operational measures to deter the terrorist Houthi militia with utmost resolve.”

In a statement, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the Houthi led Yemeni military spokesman, said they fired dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at oil and economic facilities, as well as an air base in southern Saudi Arabia.

The attacks came hours after the Yemenis blamed Saudi Arabia for an airstrike that hit a prison in Yemen’s northern province of Jawf.

At least seven people, including a child, were reportedly killed and seven others were wounded in the strike on the city of Hazem.