NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday condemned strikes by Iran-backed Houthis on Saudi Arabian oil and civilian facilities, saying that such attacks undermine regional security.Also Read | ‘Attack on one is attack on all’: Pakistan warns Houthis, invokes Mecca defence pact“India condemns attacks on Saudi sovereign territory, especially the targeting of civilian and economic facilities. Attacks that undermine regional security and stability and threaten freedom of navigation in the Bab-el-Mandeb were unacceptable,” ministry of external affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to a media query.Jaiswal’s remarks came as the Houthis, the Yemen-based rebel group, targeted Saudi oil facilities and other civilian infrastructure on Tuesday, raising widespread concerns over a further escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.The attacks on Saudi Arabia came as the US intensified its economic sanctions against Iran.As many as 73 people were wounded in a wave of Houthi attacks that targeted “civilian and economic facilities” in the Saudi Arabian cities of Abha, Jazan, Najran and Khamis Mushait.
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The strikes came hours after the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out an air strike on a prison in Yemen’s northern Jawf province. At least seven people, including a child, were killed and seven others wounded in the strike in the city of Hazem.Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, along with large parts of northern Yemen, forcing the internationally recognised government into exile.A Saudi-led coalition, which included the United Arab Emirates, intervened the following year in an effort to restore the government to power.Tensions between the US allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE escalated earlier this year as their partnership in Yemen’s war deteriorated, ultimately prompting the UAE to withdraw from the conflict.The civil war has killed at least 150,000 people, according to UN estimates, and at times pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.(With agency inputs)