A senior Saudi official told Reuters late Thursday that Riyadh expects imminent coordinated attacks from Iraqi militias in the north and Yemen's Houthis in the south under IRGC supervision. [1] Intelligence from Saudi Arabia, the United States, and other countries pointed at energy infrastructure, ports, and airports. The official said drones and missiles were being moved and that the kingdom was ready to answer any aggression. [1]
The paper's Thursday major recorded that Houthis killed 45 Yemen government soldiers in Marib. Friday's completed record is Riyadh bracing for a wider fight. CNN-style live desks still sell tanker clips. The warning is on land and at the fence.
Major General Turki al-Maliki said early Friday that a Houthi attack in southern Najran Province wounded eleven civilians: seven Saudis, one Yemeni, two Egyptians, and one Pakistani. [1] The Houthis claimed a Najran airport strike on Tuesday. [1] The Yemeni government said Thursday's camp attacks killed at least 17 government troops. [1] Unspecified sources speaking to Saudi media on Thursday had put the same day's Marib and Hadramawt camp strikes at 45. [2] The paper will print both counts. It will not invent a third.
Iraqi militias said they would respond to late-July U.S.-Saudi strikes on their positions after Riyadh blamed them for drones on oil facilities. [1][2] ISW wrote that those militias set demands including an apology and compensation, and that Baghdad pressure may be delaying a kinetic reply past August 6. [2] A delayed reply is not a cancelled one.
The official called the threats particularly alarming while contacts, including with Iran, appeared to be moving in the right direction. [1] He said the planned attacks could be meant to disrupt diplomacy over Hormuz. Fox sold Trump's personal talks the same morning. [3] A reader who only watches tanker threads will miss the two-front warning. A reader who only watches the warning will miss that Thursday's 45, or 17, already happened in camps.
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey were set to sign a joint defense pact in Mecca on Friday stating that an armed attack on one is an attack on all. [1][3] Pakistan's foreign ministry said the deal is intended to strengthen collective deterrence. [3] Shehbaz Sharif called the three nations a shield of peace. [3] A pact is not an intercept. Fourteen flags on a maritime coalition are not a published patrol. Friday changed the threat language. It did not change the water.
Riyadh has fought the Houthis for more than a decade. [1] That war is now entangled with the wider Iran fight. A Red Sea blockade that began July 20 disrupted Saudi oil exports. [1][2] Late July U.S.-Saudi strikes on Iraqi militia sites followed drones on Saudi oil facilities. [1] The militias promised a reply. ISW said they evacuated bases and moved weapons after those strikes. [2] A reader who only watches Fox's Hormuz talks will miss that Riyadh is counting incoming drones from two borders at once.
The official said civilian and economic sites could be targeted. [1] Energy infrastructure, ports, and airports are not tanker clips. They are the kingdom's own map of what a coordinated operation would hit. Friday's paper will not invent a launch time those sources did not give. It will print the two directions, the IRGC supervision claim, the Najran eleven, and the two camp counts that still disagree. [1][2]
ISW wrote that Iranian-backed Iraqi militias threatened to respond to U.S.-Saudi strikes if Riyadh failed to meet demands that include an official apology, compensation for victims' families and damaged property, and limits on anti-militia talk in Saudi media. [2] The Islamic Resistance in Iraq had said it would respond after August 6. [2] Informed sources told Kurdish media the militias were serious but under high-level government pressure. [2] Previous Iraqi governments often failed to halt militia attacks without a direct IRGC order. [2] Friday is the day after that date. The paper has no public confirmation of a kinetic reply. It has a Saudi official saying the reply may already be loaded on trucks.
Reuters reported last week that Saudi Arabia assessed the Houthis and Iraqi militias had attacked the kingdom together under IRGC supervision from Iraq. [1] Friday's warning is that assessment spoken in public. A widening war sold on live television is still a warning until a second strike lands. The camps and Najran already landed. [1][2]
-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem