South24 Center (Aden)

Interactive monitoring by South24 Center recorded 128 military and security incidents across Yemen, border areas, and adjacent waters between August 8 and 20, 2026, amid a multi-front escalation involving the Houthi militia, government forces, and Southern forces, alongside exchanges of attacks and military operations between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia.

Military incidents accounted for approximately 95% of all recorded events, with 121 military incidents compared with seven security incidents. Activity was concentrated primarily in Taiz, which recorded 34 incidents, followed by Al-Dhalea with 17 and Marib with 15, amid extensive use of ballistic missiles, drones, and artillery.

Casualty Toll

According to South24 Center’s review of the reported figures, the incidents recorded between August 8 and 20 left approximately 174 people killed or wounded.

The toll included 50 civilians and merchant vessel crew members, among them 13 killed and 37 wounded. Four additional casualties were recorded in an attack on Al-Mokha Port on August 14—one killed and three wounded—although the sources did not specify whether they were civilians or military personnel.

At the military and security levels, the incidents recorded during the period left approximately 120 people from various parties killed or wounded. This figure includes 26 killed and 39 wounded in incidents with detailed figures, in addition to approximately 55 Houthi fighters who were killed or wounded during clashes on the Al-Barh front west of Taiz. No breakdown distinguishing the number killed from those wounded was provided.

These figures also include the deaths of two Southern forces soldiers recorded during the monitoring period after they succumbed to injuries sustained in earlier incidents. One had been wounded during clashes with the Houthis in July, while the other had been injured in a Saudi airstrike in January this year.

In addition to these losses, the National Resistance-affiliated 2 December News Agency, citing informed sources in Hodeidah, reported that more than 200 Houthi fighters were killed and another 400 wounded during the first half of August, bringing the cumulative toll to more than 600 killed and wounded. South24 Center could not independently verify this figure.

The monitoring also recorded the deaths of five Houthi fighters in a naval clash off the West Coast on August 13, in addition to the approximately 55 Houthi fighters killed or wounded on the Al-Barh front the following day. When these losses are added to the cumulative toll, the Houthis’ reported casualties during the course of the escalation exceed 660 killed and wounded.

Combined, the reported figures bring the overall casualty toll associated with the escalation to more than 774 killed and wounded. This includes more than 720 military personnel, security members, and fighters, as well as 50 civilians and merchant vessel crew members and four casualties whose status was not specified.

The toll does not include two seafarers reported missing following a Houthi attack on Al-Mokha Port on August 15, an unspecified number of people wounded in Marib city, or other unquantified losses announced by the warring parties across several frontlines.

Continuing Escalation in Al-Mokha and the West Coast

Al-Mokha and the West Coast emerged as major hotspots of the escalation. On August 9, the National Resistance Forces announced that four military personnel and three civilians were killed and 15 civilians wounded in a large-scale Houthi attack targeting Al-Mokha city and port, as well as civilian and military sites and facilities.

The forces said they downed 11 drones involved in the attack. In a cumulative assessment, Yemen’s Transport Minister said Al-Mokha Port had been subjected to at least 25 ballistic missile and drone strikes targeting its economic facilities, staff housing, fuel station, storage tanks, and other infrastructure.

The port came under renewed bombardment on August 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17. The August 14 attack killed one person and wounded three others. The following day, a member of Al-Mokha Port’s security force was killed, two seafarers went missing, and eight civilians were wounded in another attack involving six ballistic missiles.

On the Al-Barh front west of Taiz, the Joint Forces said that clashes lasting approximately five hours on August 14 killed or wounded around 55 Houthi fighters. Three members of the National Resistance Forces were also killed and seven others wounded.

On August 19, Agence France-Presse, citing Houthi military sources, reported that the group had deployed reinforcements comprising nearly 2,000 fighters to frontlines in Taiz and Hodeidah in preparation for a possible military operation aimed at capturing government-held areas along the West Coast.

South Yemen

Across the governorates of South Yemen and the frontlines along their borders, attacks and clashes during the monitoring period left 29 people killed or wounded, including seven killed and 22 wounded.

Of this total, 24 were killed or wounded in the military escalation, which was dominated by Houthi attacks and drone activity. This figure included six killed and 18 wounded. A civilian was killed in Houthi shelling of Batarr village in Al-Dhalea, while a child and a woman were wounded in two separate Houthi sniper attacks in Batarr and Muris.

Two Southern forces soldiers were killed on the Hifan and Al-Subaiha frontlines bordering Taiz. Meanwhile, a drone attack on a Nation Shield Forces camp in Al-Abr, Hadramout, killed two soldiers and wounded 15 others. Another soldier was wounded in clashes on the Karsh and Hamala frontlines in northern Lahj, while a soldier was killed by a munition dropped from a Houthi drone on the Al-Hadd front in Yafa.

In Abyan, one soldier was killed, while officer Moqbel Al-Mahwari and three of his escorts were wounded in an ambush that the National Security Forces described as an Al-Qaeda attack.

During the monitoring period, South24 Center recorded repeated attacks and attempted strikes targeting Aden, Al-Dhalea, Lahj, Shabwa, Hadramout, and Abyan. These included drones approaching vital facilities in Aden, Katyusha rockets and mortar shells targeting villages and military positions in Al-Dhalea, infiltration attempts and drone and mortar attacks in Bayhan and Markha Al-Ulya in Shabwa, and repeated clashes in Karsh, Al-Musaymir, and Yafa in northern Lahj.

In the maritime corridor connected to South Yemen, the Houthis targeted the Yemeni commercial vessel Tihamah with three ballistic missiles in Bab Al-Mandab on August 11. The attack killed six crew members, including three Pakistanis and one Indonesian, and wounded ten others.

Escalation with Saudi Arabia

On the Saudi front, the Houthis announced drone attacks against an Aramco refinery in Jizan on August 9, 13, and 18. On August 20, they claimed to have targeted Najran Airport and an Aramco facility in Najran with two drones.

In turn, Houthi media reported repeated Saudi bombardment of border areas in Saada, including Ghamr, Razih, Baqim, and Qatabir, using artillery and drones.

On August 12, two Saudi officers were killed and a third wounded when an explosive device detonated in the Al-Ruwaik area east of Marib. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, and no evidence was available to link it to the Houthis.

At the end of the monitoring period, the Houthi military spokesperson claimed that the group had prevented 48 Saudi oil vessels from passing through the Red and Arabian Seas and had targeted eight vessels since July 20. He threatened what he described as a “comprehensive escalation” in response to any new Saudi action.

Large-Scale Counter-Operations

Government forces, Southern forces, and the National Resistance Forces intensified their operations against Houthi positions in Marib, Taiz, Al-Jawf, Hodeidah, Al-Dhalea, Lahj, and Shabwa.

In three separate statements, Yemen’s Defense Ministry announced that its forces had carried out 181 operations over a 24-hour period on August 16, 133 operations on August 18, and 81 operations on August 20, using artillery, rocket launchers, and drones.

The Shabwa Defense Forces also carried out counter-operations in Harib, Ayn, Bayhan, and Markha Al-Ulya. Southern forces targeted Houthi positions and movements in Al-Dhalea, Lahj, and Shabwa, while the National Resistance Forces and government forces struck Houthi positions and reinforcements along the West Coast and in Taiz, Hodeidah, and Al-Jawf.

South24 Center could not independently verify all casualty figures or operational claims issued by the warring parties, particularly those concerning Houthi losses and the results of reciprocal attacks inside Saudi Arabia and along the frontlines.

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