Clashes between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and government forces in Yemen raged overnight Thursday as renewed violence continues to spread and feed growing fears that the country’s civil war could reignite and create a new front in the Middle East war. Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Yemeni soldier killed in clashes with Iranian-backed Houthi rebels At least one government soldier was killed and another critically wounded in clashes between Houthi rebels and the military in the mountainous province of Taiz, Yemeni military officials told The Associated Press. The fighting came as part of a spate of recent attacks by the Houthis on government-held areas across the country. Dozens of government troops have been killed in attacks since last week, the Yemeni military said. Elsewhere, several tribal leaders in the central province of Marib said the Yemeni army’s artillery targeted overnight Houthi movements. The Houthis have been hitting government-held areas with drones and missiles, saying they have been targeting military forces and warehouses. They have also been attacking oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea. Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, told the U.N. Security Council in a video briefing Thursday that Yemen is at greater risk of returning to large-scale conflict than at any time since a 2022 truce ended nearly a decade of war. Yemen faces “catastrophe” from rising hunger and from health services crumbling amid the fighting, said UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher. He said 6 million people in Yemen face emergency levels of food insecurity bordering on famine, “the highest number globally.” Iran and Oman working to clean oil spills off their coasts Oil spills spreading off the coasts of Iran and Oman are raising concerns about environmental damage as oil shipments have come under fire in Iran’s war with the U.S. and Israel. Iran said Thursday it’s working to clean up an oil spill off Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Images distributed by Iran’s semiofficial news agency ISNA showed oil fouling the island’s beaches. While Iran hasn’t said what caused the spill, the firm TankerTrackers.com says it appears to have started with an Iranian attack on a bulk carrier off Oman. Oman is responding to another spill in the Arabian Sea, coming from a tanker grounded off its southern coast. The tanker Caroline Bezengi — a sanctioned vessel believed to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” — has been grounded since reporting an explosion in June. No party has claimed responsibility and the cause is unknown. A British maritime risk and response company said Thursday it has been hired to salvage the tanker and stop the oil leak off Oman. Oil from the ship has been spreading for weeks, reaching shores hundreds of kilometres (miles) north of the vessel. Israeli strikes kill 2, including a police chief, in Gaza Israeli strikes killed at least two people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and injured several others, health officials said. Jamal Abu Kamil, a Gaza governorate police chief, was killed when his vehicle was struck southwest of Gaza City, according to the territory’s interior ministry and Shifa Hospital, where his body was taken along with a person wounded by the same strike. The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about that strike. A separate Israeli strike killed a man and injured another person in Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, where both were taken. The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas company commander in Khan Younis who “planned to execute terror attacks” against troops. American ambassador to Israel condemns settlers’ siege of Palestinian homes The U.S. ambassador to Israel condemned a siege by Israeli settlers of a Palestinian-American family’s home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, calling it a “horrific act of terror.” Mike Huckabee’s remarks on X represented an unusually sharp rebuke from the Trump administration of the latest episode during a spike in clashes between settlers and Palestinians in the region. Starting Sunday, settlers targeted three homes in the village of Qusra, throwing stones and preventing occupants from leaving despite dwindling supplies. On Thursday morning, Qusai Abu Rida — the brother of the Palestinian-American homeowner who had holed up in the house with his own teenage son to defend it — said they were moved by Israel’s military to another home but still cannot leave the area. --- The Associated Press
