Then a second statement this morning gave a different number. 20 strikes in three hours, hitting Houthi fighters, reinforcements and equipment in Taiz, on named fronts including Humair, Bani Bakari and al-Wazi'iyah. Nobody has said if that's the same wave counted twice, or a second one.
No figures for people killed or wounded from either side yet. The Houthi-run Saba news agency says Saudi warplanes hit Sanaa, Saada, Taiz and Amran. It gave no detail on sites or damage.
That's everything we know.
Why this mattersSo why does this matter so much?
This is the biggest clash between the two sides since July. That's when the current escalation started. Before that, a 2022 truce had mostly held.
And it follows an accusation that the Houthis just crossed a new line.
Three days ago, Saudi Arabia says a drone hit the Taibah power station in Medina. One transformer went down. The rest of the network kept running. Saudi Arabia says it examined the drone wreckage and confirmed the Houthis did it.
Here's why that station matters. It supplies power to the Prophet's Mosque. One of Islam's two holiest sites.
Turki al-Maliki, the coalition's spokesperson, calls it a continuation of attempts to target the Two Holy Mosques, and says quote "targeting a civilian facility providing electricity to the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah".
The Houthis say that's a lie. A Houthi military source says the claim is cover for an earlier Saudi accusation, one that said the Houthis had targeted Mecca. That claim was never backed up either.
So neither side's version has been independently confirmed.
And the bigger picture is already bad.
Last month the Houthis took the Red Sea city of Mocha. They've expanded their grip on the Bab al-Mandeb strait and Mayun Island too. Two days ago, Saudi-backed forces say they killed at least 30 Houthi fighters on one Taiz front alone. Saudi Arabia says it shot down four drones and two ballistic missiles aimed at its territory a few hours ago.
People are already running from their homes. Yemen's displacement unit had counted close to 198,000 newly displaced people as of three days ago, most from Taiz and Lahij. Other counts don't match. One says tens of thousands. Another says more than 133,000. Nobody has explained the gap.
Hans Grundberg, the UN's envoy for Yemen, says he's alarmed by what's happening in Taiz. He's calling on the Houthis to stop their push there.
And Saudi Arabia just approved close to $60 million for Yemen's government. That's the same side now bombing Sanaa, Saada and Taiz.
So what happens next? That depends on whether this was a one-off response, or the start of something bigger.
Right now, nobody has said which.
