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Yemen’s Ministry of Information denounces Houthi attacks on Marib as ‘escalation’ that threatens lives and increases suffering.

Yemen’s Houthis have launched several strikes on the government-held city of Marib, also hitting residential neighbourhoods, according to local authorities.

The group hit the city with four ballistic missiles and four drones on Saturday, causing several injuries and damage to homes, vehicles and property, Marib’s provincial authority said.

A fifth ballistic missile later in the day also injured one person, Marib governorate officials said on X.

A sixth ballistic missile was launched by the Houthis towards Marib overnight, officials added early on Sunday.

It described the strikes as part of an “ongoing assault that threatens the lives of civilians, displaced persons’ camps, and residential neighbourhoods”.

Marib hosts the largest number of internally displaced people in Yemen, with more than two million of the roughly five million Yemenis forced from their homes over the course of the war living there.

Video footage verified by Al Jazeera showed destruction in the aftermath of Saturday’s strikes.

Yemen’s Ministry of Information said on X that the continued targeting of Marib’s densely populated areas marked a dangerous “escalation” that threatens lives and increases suffering.

The attacks on Marib came alongside clashes further south, where Yemeni government forces claimed drone strikes killed three fighters from the Iran-backed Houthis on Saturday, including field commanders, and wounded others along the Maqbanah front west of Taiz.

A separate strike destroyed a Houthi military vehicle in Jabal al-Zuhayb, killing several more fighters, a military source told the Yemeni News Agency (Saba).

The attacks are part of a rapid escalation that has gripped Yemen since early August, when Houthi missile and drone strikes on military camps in Marib and Hadramout killed at least 30 government soldiers, the deadliest single episode of the conflict in years.

Days later, Houthi missiles killed at least two civilians and wounded 14 in Marib, and further strikes killed seven people in the port city of al-Makha (Mocha).

The Houthis, backed by Iran, control much of Yemen’s northern territory, including the capital, Sanaa.

United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg warned the UN Security Council on Thursday that Yemen faces its highest risk of returning to full-scale war since the UN-brokered truce of April 2022, as fighting has intensified on multiple fronts and threatens to unravel more than four years of relative calm.

A suspected Russian drone attack on a residential building in Ukraine has injured at least seven people. Emergency services responded as fire ripped through the building in Zaporizhzhia.

Israeli strikes on residential buildings have killed nine Palestinians, setting homes ablaze and leaving widespread destruction. Footage from the scenes showed rescue efforts amid the flames and ambulances transporting casualties.

Romanian President Nicusor Dan says that the Russian consul in the southeastern city of Constanta will be expelled and the consulate shut down after a drone intended for Ukraine crashed into an apartment complex in the border town of Galati.

May 29 (UPI) — A Russian drone carrying explosives struck the roof of an apartment building in NATO ally Romania overnight, risking a dangerous escalation in Moscow’s four-year-old war in Ukraine.

The drone had entered Romanian airspace during a Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine and struck the building in the eastern city of Galati, located near the Romania-Ukraine border, Romania’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday.

Two people were “slightly injured,” according to Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The two victims were transported to the Galati County Emergency Clinical Hospital, officials said.

The drone sparked a fire on the 10th floor of the building, according to the Department for Emergency Situations, which said online that 70 people were evacuated from the building.

Video of the scene shared by Galati County emergency services officials shows firefighters responding and debris littering the residential street.

“This represents a serious and irresponsible escalation by the Russian Federation,” Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Toiu said online.

According to the Defense Ministry, radars had detected drones flying near Romanian airspace, prompting two F-16 fighter jets and an IAR-330 SOCAT helicopter to deploy at 1:19 a.m., with authorization to engage targets.

The aircraft followed the drone in Romanian airspace, but the decision was made to not engage over heightened risk to the safety of the civilian population, Romanian President Nicusor Dan said in a statement.

Dan said he convened a meeting of the Supreme Council of National Defense for 11 a.m. Friday to discuss what he called “the most serious incident to have affected national territory” since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, igniting the war.

“The unprecedented nature of the event requires a firm, coordinated and commensurate response — at the national, allied and international levels,” he said.

He said he holds the Kremlin wholly responsible.

“What happened today in Galati is the direct consequence of Russia’s war of aggression unleashed against Ukraine, of the irresponsible and indiscriminate manner in which Moscow operates these weapons systems in the immediate vicinity of NATO borders, as well as of its systematic disregard for international law,” he said.

“There is no ambiguity regarding the perpetrator and the cause of this aggression.”

All NATO and European Union allies have been informed of the incident, and the U.N. Security Council has been informed, he said, adding that Romania has formally requested that allies deploy additional anti-drone capabilities to NATO’s eastern flank.

Romania also summoned the Russian ambassador to officially communicate “the effects that this lack of responsibility on the part of the Russian Federation will have on the diplomatic relations between our countries and the next steps at the European level regarding packages of sanctions,” Toiu said.

Numerous heads of state and ministers of foreign affairs condemned the attack, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who said he spoke with Dan and assured him that the alliance “stands ready to defend every inch of allied territory.”

“Russia’s reckless behavior is a danger to us all,” he said in a statement. “They continue to target civilians and civilian infrastructure across Ukraine. And last night showed yet again that the implications of their illegal war of aggression don’t stop at the border.”

Russian drones have repeatedly entered NATO airspace amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, but Friday’s incident appeared to be the most severe involving Romania.