Saudi Arabia threatened to respond to Houthi attacks on its southern cities and energy infrastructure on Tuesday, September 8, after authorities reported 73 civilians wounded in strikes on four cities and fires that temporarily disrupted operations at several energy facilities.

Coalition spokesperson Major General Turki al-Maliki said the latest Houthi attacks targeted civilian and economic sites in Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran, injuring 73 people, including women and children.

Describing the attacks as a “dangerous escalation,” al-Maliki said the coalition’s joint command would take the necessary operational measures to deter the group and neutralise the sources of the threat.

Separately, the Saudi Energy Ministry said several facilities in the kingdom’s southern region were attacked on Tuesday morning, causing fires, injuries among Saudi citizens and foreign residents, and temporary suspensions of some operations.

Emergency teams were working to contain the fires, secure the affected sites and assess the damage. The ministry did not identify the facilities, quantify the disruption or indicate when operations would resume. It also provided no separate casualty figure for the energy sites within the broader toll announced by the coalition.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks and affirmed the kingdom’s right to defend its territory, infrastructure and population in accordance with international law.

It also linked the strikes to continuing Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, urging an immediate halt to the escalation and calling on the international community to implement relevant UN Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolutions 2216 and 2722.

In its September 7 report on the expanding government counteroffensive, Sheba Intelligence cited informed sources reporting Houthi missile launches from several locations, including sites around Sana’a. At the time, it remained unclear whether the missiles were directed towards battlefronts in Taiz, Marib and Al-Jawf or towards areas near the Saudi border.

The attacks on southern Saudi Arabia follow that reported missile activity, although no information has established that the launches described in the earlier report were part of these attacks.

The escalation comes amid widening ground fighting and air operations against Houthi positions inside Yemen. Saudi statements did not specify the timing or scope of any forthcoming response.