Britain to provide Saudi Arabia with defensive military support

Britain will provide defensive air-to-air refueling support to Saudi Arabia in response to recent attacks by Yemen's Houthi group, the BBC cited British Prime Minister Andy Burnham as saying on Monday.

Burnham made the announcement to reporters aboard his plane en route to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, according to the report, saying he had agreed to a Saudi request for military support.

The support is expected to begin in the coming days and involve a Royal Air Force Voyager aircraft providing air-to-air refueling for Saudi jets.

British officials said the deployment would initially last for several weeks.

The planned deployment adds to the military support available to Saudi Arabia as the country's clashes with the Houthis intensify both inside Yemen and across the border, raising growing concerns among various parties.

Saudi-Houthi clashes intensify in SW Yemen Saudi airstrikes hit a market and a school in southwestern Yemen's Taiz Province on Monday, killing at least one person, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported, as fighting intensifies across the country's southwest.

The channel, citing a local source, said that Saudi warplanes struck a public market in Dhubab district, a coastal area south of the Red Sea port city of Mocha and near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Farther inland, five airstrikes hit Hayfan district in southern Taiz, killing one civilian, the report said.

The channel added that Al-Thawrah School in the district was also hit, without giving details of casualties or damage.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia, and the reported strikes and casualty figure could not be independently verified.

The airstrikes came as government forces and Houthi fighters remain locked in fighting in southwestern Yemen, where control of frontline positions has shifted repeatedly in recent days.

The Houthis have recently made major gains along Yemen's southwestern Red Sea coast, seizing Taiz Province's port city of Mocha on September 10, then pushing south to capture Dhubab and take Mayyun Island in the heart of Bab al-Mandab Strait on September 11.

Government forces are now trying to block further Houthi advances along the mountainous approaches to the strategic waterway.

Houthi leader warns Türkiye, Pakistan against joining Saudi Arabia Yemen's Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi warned Türkiye and Pakistan against involvement in the group's escalating confrontation with Saudi Arabia.