Israel
reports first missile attack from Yemen after Rubio says war to end in ‘weeks’
Missile
fired from Yemen the first since the Iran war began, raising concerns
Iran-aligned Houthis joining the conflict
Jason
Burke International security correspondent
Sat 28
Mar 2026 05.56 GMT
Israel
said on Saturday it had detected a missile fired from Yemen, the first since
the Iran war began, just hours after Marco Rubio said the US expected to
conclude military operations within “weeks, not months”.
While
Israel was again hitting targets across Iran’s capital on Saturday, it
identified what it said was a missile launched from Yemen. Hours earlier,
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they were prepared to act if what the group
called an escalation against Iran and the “axis of resistance” continued, but
did not say what form any intervention would take.
Houthi
involvement in the war would risk broadening the conflict, given their ability
to strike targets far beyond Yemen and disrupt shipping lanes around the
Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, which they had done in support of Hamas in
Gaza after the 7 October attacks on Israel.
Speaking
to reporters on Friday, after meeting G7 foreign ministers in France, Rubio
said of Iran: “When we are done with them here in the next couple weeks, they
will be weaker than they’ve been in recent history.”
But soon
after, US media reported an Iranian attack on a base in Saudi Arabia wounded at
least 12 American soldiers, two of them seriously. The attack on the Prince
Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia included at least one missile and several
drones, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported, citing
unidentified officials.
The
soldiers were inside a building at the base when it was struck, according to
reports. Several aerial refuelling planes also suffered damage in the attack.
US
officials have given conflicting signals about how long they anticipate
continuing their joint offensive with Israel against Iran, which began with a
surprise strike on 28 February that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Iran
remains defiant, and has denied Donald Trump’s claims that talks are “going
well”, saying no negotiations are taking place.
Meanwhile
Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on Friday: “We think there will be meetings
[with Iran] this week. We’re certainly hopeful for it.”
Trump
later claimed Iran sent the US 10 oil ships “to make up for their misstatement”
about not being involved in negotiations.
In the
Lebanese capital, Beirut, a pre-dawn Israeli strike killed two people,
according to local authorities, while barrages of Iranian missiles and drones
targeted Israel.
“Despite
the warnings, the firing continues,” Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister,
said. “And therefore attacks in Iran will escalate and expand to additional
targets and areas that assist the regime in building and operating weapons
against Israeli citizens.”
Israel’s
most recent strikes targeted nuclear facilities in Iran on Friday, possibly in
an attempt to hit what are seen as strategically important targets before the
White House forces Israel to halt or reduce sorties.
With
stock markets reeling and economic fallout from the war extending far beyond
the Middle East, Trump is under growing pressure. It is caused by Iran’s
continuing chokehold on the strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through
which a fifth of the world’s oil is usually shipped.
The
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had turned back three ships
trying to transit the strait, adding that all shipping “to and from ports of
allies and supporters of the Israeli-American enemies” was prohibited from
passing.
“This
morning, following the lies of the corrupt US president claiming that the
strait of Hormuz was open, three container ships of different nationalities …
were turned back after a warning from the IRGC navy,” the Guards said on their
Sepah News website.
Rubio
said ensuring the strait remained open to shipping was likely to pose an
“immediate challenge” even after the US accomplished its military objectives in
Iran. He said Iran may seek to set up a toll on the strait, which he said could
cause economic damage to many countries.
“Not only
is this illegal, it’s unacceptable … and it’s important that the world have a
plan,” Rubio said.
Rubio
said the UK was taking a “prominent role” in efforts to reopen the strait,
after Trump dismissed the British aircraft carriers as “toys” on Thursday.
The US
has ordered thousands of US marines and elite airborne troops to the region,
possibly in preparation for a military effort to forcibly reopen the waterway
by seizing one of the many islands in the Gulf, or Kharg Island, which is
Iran’s principal oil export hub.
On
Friday, Esmael Saghab Esfahani, one of Iran’s vice-presidents, threatened to
attack Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu, as well as the vast coastal
Fujairah oil complex in the United Arab Emirates, should any ground invasion
take place.
“Step on
to Iranian soil, and $150 becomes the floor for oil,” Esfahani wrote on X.
Trump has
also issued Iran with an ultimatum, saying that if it does not allow free
passage of shipping through the strait by 6 April, he will order the
destruction of Iran’s energy plants. The US president pushed back the deadline
of a previous ultimatum that he had set for last Monday.
Israel
targeted a range of sites associated with Iran’s nuclear programme on Friday,
including a heavy-water plant and a yellowcake production plant, according to
the official Iranian news agency. Yellowcake is a concentrated form of uranium
after impurities are removed from the raw ore. Heavy water is used as a
moderator in nuclear reactors.
Iran’s
Atomic Energy Organisation said the Shahid Khondab heavy-water complex in Arak
and the Ardakan yellowcake production plant in Yazd province were targeted, the
agency said. The strikes did not cause any casualties and there was no risk of
contamination, it said.
Other US
and Israeli strikes continued to target Iran’s missile stockpile and launchers.
Israel’s military said its attacks on Friday hit sites “in the heart of Tehran”
where ballistic missiles and other weapons were produced. It said it also hit
missile launchers and storage sites in western Iran.
Reuters
reported that the US could only confirm that about a third of Iran’s missile
arsenal had been destroyed, according to five people familiar with the US
intelligence. One source said the intelligence on Iran’s drone capability was
similar, with about a third probably destroyed.
Iranian
missiles and drones strikes have continued at a roughly consistent level, with
between 10 and 20 targeting Israel daily, which experts say does not suggest
significant shortages.
On
Friday, attacks targeted the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and two major ports in
Kuwait as Tehran gave no direct sign that it was ready for negotiation or
compromise.
Casualties
around the Middle East continue to mount. Nineteen people have died in Israel,
while four Israeli soldiers have also been killed in Lebanon. Thirteen US
military members have died, as well as civilians on land and sea in the Gulf
region.
In Iran,
more than 1,900 people had been killed and at least 20,000 injured, said Maria
Martinez of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies. Others estimate lower numbers.
In
Lebanon, the Israeli military operation in the south has displaced a fifth of
Lebanon’s population, triggering a humanitarian crisis. Nearly 1,100 people in
Lebanon have been killed in the Israeli offensive. It follows attacks on Israel
by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamist militant movement.
Both
Israel and the US say they want to ensure that Iran can no longer threaten
Israel with ballistic missiles or its nuclear programme, which Iran says is
purely civilian, or through allied organisations, such as Hezbollah.
The more
ambitious aim of regime change has been played down by officials in both
countries in recent days.
New data
from ACLED, the independent global conflict monitor, shows there have been more
than 850 pro-regime demonstrations and protests in Iran since the beginning of
the war, which, experts said, suggested Iran’s leaders could still organise and
mobilise large numbers of people despite significant losses.
There is
little clarity over the exact status of any contacts between mediators such as
Pakistan or Turkey and Iran and the US.
Rubio
said Iran had sent “messages” but not a response to Washington’s 15-point
proposal, which Pakistan passed on to Iran earlier this week.
The US
proposal included demands ranging from the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear
programme to the curbing of its missile development and effectively the handing
over of control of the strait of Hormuz, according to sources and reports.
An
Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday that senior Iranian officials had
reviewed the proposal and felt it served only US and Israeli interests. But
they said diplomacy had not ended.
On
Thursday, Trump said that talks were continuing “despite erroneous statements
to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others” and were “going very well”.
In a
joint statement, the G7 foreign ministers “reiterated the absolute necessity to
permanently restore safe and toll-free freedom of navigation in the strait of
Hormuz” and called for “an immediate cessation of attacks against civilians and
civilian infrastructure”.
UK
officials viewed the statement as having moved events on relatively little,
with one saying: “The joint statement doesn’t say much, but there was
speculation beforehand that we might not even get a joint statement at all – so
it is something.”
Trump
said he was “very disappointed” in Nato for not helping the US with the Iran
war, adding the organisation was making a “big mistake”.
US and
other media reported an apparent deployment of mines by the US in southern
Iran. Three experts told the Bellingcat investigative news website the
munitions were air-delivered US-made Gator anti-tank mines.
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