SANA’A -- Ansarullah-led Yemeni forces said on Tuesday they repelled a Saudi-backed advance south of the Bab el-Mandab Strait and launched an unprecedented wave of ballistic missile and drone strikes deep inside Saudi Arabia, hitting the kingdom's Defense Ministry in Riyadh, a major oil refinery on the eastern coast, and military transport aircraft at two air bases, in a sharp escalation of the decade-long war.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, said in a statement carried by the Sana’a-based Saba news agency that forces affiliated with the “Saudi enemy" attempted to advance from the southern direction of Bab el-Mandab under the supervision of Saudi officer Badr al-Harbi, commander of the forward operational base in Aden.

Saree said the advancing forces were targeted with "a number of ballistic missiles and heavy weapons," resulting in "large numbers of dead and wounded," with ambulances rushing to the scene. He said several military vehicles were destroyed and the advance was thwarted.

The Sana’a statement directly contradicted claims by Saudi-backed forces, which announced on Tuesday that a joint force of the Giants Brigades, Homeland Shield, and Tihama Brigades, backed by Saudi air support, had captured strategic hills and commanding positions in Bab el-Mandab after attacking Ansarullah-led Yemeni positions.

Saree renewed a warning to Yemenis fighting alongside the Saudi-backed regime, cautioning them against "heeding the calls of the Saudi enemy and its officers, who are sending them into the furnaces of death".

In a series of statements on X, Saree admitted responsibility for multiple cross-border operations on Tuesday. He said Yemeni forces targeted the Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province with a ballistic missile, causing "massive fires" at the facility, which is operated by Saudi Aramco.

Saree also admitted a ballistic missile strike that "directly hit" the Saudi Defense Ministry building in the capital Riyadh. Saudi civil defense confirmed that “debris from two intercepted ballistic missiles fell in Riyadh, causing material damage to a building, a construction site, and a vehicle”.

Saree further said that Yemeni forces targeted two Saudi military transport aircraft, one at Najran airport and the other at King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait.

He also announced a "direct" drone hit on Abha International Airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia, saying the strike was "accurate" and disrupted air traffic. Warning systems were activated across several Saudi cities on Tuesday.

The escalation comes as Saudi Arabia has intensified its military aggression against Yemen since July, and Ansarullah-led Yemeni forces have responded with increasingly frequent missile and drone strikes on Saudi airports, oil facilities, and military sites.

The Bab el-Mandab Strait, a chokepoint through which about 12 percent of global oil normally passes, has seen that volume fall to roughly five or six percent amid the fighting.

The Saudi aggression is also drawing in outside powers. Turkiye and Pakistan are backing Saudi Arabia under the Makkah Pact signed by Riyadh, Ankara, and Islamabad.

Egypt's parliament on Monday approved President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's request for military assistance to Saudi Arabia, authorizing measures to defend the kingdom's territory, sovereignty, and holy sites, though the statement did not explicitly announce a troop deployment. The approval followed three closed-door sessions and a two-thirds majority vote.