RIYADH (Dispatches) -- Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan al-Fawzan urged Saudi troops on Friday to be ready to “sacrifice their lives” in attacking Yemen, a rare religious edict that amounted to an open call for more bloodshed as Riyadh faces mounting pressure from Yemeni armed forces.
France, meanwhile, is deploying military personnel and military equipment to Saudi Arabia. Macron said Thursday that France would send “soldiers, radars, and defense systems” to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, adding the deployment was “not to involve ourselves in any conflict, but to protect the site.” 
Yanbu hosts major oil storage and refining facilities and is connected to the East-West Pipeline, which can carry up to seven million barrels of crude per day.
The French deployment comes as Yemeni armed forces have intensified missile and drone attacks on Saudi targets. Yemeni forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree revealed Thursday that Yemeni troops had struck Aramco facilities in Yanbu and a “sensitive target” in Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia has turned to Turkey and Pakistan for support, with the three countries arranging an “urgent meeting” of their military chiefs under the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement. 
However, the pact has not been ratified by the parliaments of Turkey or Pakistan, so it does not automatically require Ankara or Islamabad to deploy troops.
The Wahhabi mufti’s call to arms came as Yemeni officials documented the toll of more than a decade of Saudi-led aggression and blockade. 
The Yemeni parliament speaker said Saudi airstrikes and the unjust blockade had killed and injured more than 60,000 civilians, including approximately 24,000 martyrs and 36,000 wounded. 
Among the casualties were 8,262 children — 3,243 killed and 5,019 injured — and 6,686 women. The blockade’s consequences — disease, malnutrition, and shortages of medicine — have led to the deaths of more than 1.4 million Yemeni citizens, most of them children, women, and the elderly, and displaced more than five million people.
Saudi warplanes have deliberately bombed civilian infrastructure including markets, roads, bridges, schools, mosques, and hospitals, and attacked Sanaa International Airport and the central prison in Al-Jawf. 
In Taiz, the Ta’iz Network for Rights and Freedoms condemned a “dangerous criminal escalation characterized by collective punishment and indiscriminate retaliation,” documenting Saudi airstrikes on educational facilities in Hayfan District, including Al-Thawra School.
Yemeni armed forces captured the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha on September 10, driving Saudi mercenaries from the coastal hub and opening a rapid advance toward Bab al-Mandab. 
The operation liberated more than 5,400 square kilometers in Ta’iz and Hudaydah, captured Mayyun and Hanish islands, and destroyed or captured more than 27 military camps. 
More than 600 Saudi-recruited mercenaries were killed or wounded, and hundreds captured, with fleeing “Giants Brigade” and “Tihama Brigade” units abandoning equipment and wounded fighters.
Daily ship traffic through Bab al-Mandab has dropped by 50 percent, from 30 to 15 vessels, and war-risk insurance costs have skyrocketed. Saudi crude production fell 23 percent to 6.2 million barrels per day in August, and crude exports dropped from 5.1 million to 3.1 million bpd.
Defense Minister Major General Muhammad Nasser al-Atifi and Chief of Staff Major General Youssef Hassan al-Madani warned that “all Yemeni military divisions will firmly and resolutely continue their struggle against Saudi Arabia”.
They said Yemen’s “missiles and drones can strike any location deep inside Saudi territory, devastate the kingdom’s economy, and can reach anywhere Saudi officials might be taking shelter.”
“The slightest folly you commit will come at a heavy price,” they warned. “Our armed forces have introduced effective measures to establish a new equation of deterrence.”