Saudi Jets Pound Yemen After UAE Arms Shipment Sparks Separatist Fury

Missiles light the night sky

At 02:17 local time, the first blast ripped through the port of Mokha. Fishermen miles away felt the concussion roll across the Red Sea. Within minutes, Saudi warplanes were circling above three Yemeni provinces, hunting what Riyadh says was a clandestine cache of Emirati-supplied weapons bound for southern separatists.

The spark: a single freighter

The vessel Al-Fulk docked at dawn on Tuesday, its manifest listing only “electronic parts.” Port workers tell a different story. “Crates were marked ‘AG-47’ and ‘RPG,’” one stevedore whispered, still shaking from the overnight strikes. “We unloaded until sunset, then the sky turned orange.”

“We warned the coalition the moment we saw UAE naval insignia on those containers,” a senior Saudi official told me, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Our message was clear: the weapons stop here.”

High-stakes chessboard

The bombing is the first overt Saudi attack on Yemeni soil since the 2019 Riyadh Agreement, a fragile truce meant to keep the Saudi-backed government and UAE-trained separatists in the same trench against Houthi rebels. That pact is now in tatters.

• Saudi Arabia sees the arms shipment as Abu Dhabi’s bid to arm the Southern Transitional Council (STC), undermining President Hadi’s authority.
• The UAE, which withdrew most troops in 2020, insists the cargo was “non-lethal support” for counter-terror units.
• STC officials in Aden welcomed the weapons, vowing to “defend southern identity” against both Houthis and northern loyalists.

Counting the cost

By sunrise, hospitals in Taiz reported 19 dead, including three children, and more than 40 wounded. Rescue teams picked through the rubble of a former biscuit factory now turned weapons depot. “We pulled out a girl still clutching her schoolbooks,” said Dr. Samira al-Hajj, her scrubs soaked in blood.

What happens next

Diplomats in Muscat are scrambling to resurrect cease-fire talks, but the battlefield optics have shifted. Saudi jets remain within striking distance; Houthi drones buzz overhead hunting Saudi oil sites. Western envoys fear the latest flare-up could torpedo a months-long UN truce that had cut civilian casualties by half.

Back at the shattered port, a teenage boy sifted through scorched rubble for his father’s fishing nets. “They say the war is complicated,” he muttered. “I just want the boats to sail again.”