ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen on Monday said 100 fighter jets destroyed 324 “high-value targets” and secured the Bab al-Mandab Strait, while operations are ongoing.

“We destroyed 324 high-value targets,” spokesperson for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen Turki al-Maliki wrote on X, adding that “100 fighter jets participated at dawn today in Operation ‘Dawn of Yemen.’”

Operation Dawn of Yemen, a large-scale military offensive to retake the capital Sanaa and end Houthi control, was announced by Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad al-Alimi on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Yemen’s army said it had carried out 1,122 “precise targeting operations” against the Iran-backed Houthis, killing 1,747 members while disabling 364 vehicles, equipment, and military transport and supply vehicles.

“Our Armed Forces have carried out (1122) precise targeting operations against artillery and rocket launcher positions, defensive fortifications, approach and deployment routes, supply lines and means, reinforcements and combat troop concentrations, governing bodies, and command and control centers belonging to the terrorist Houthi militia,” Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili announced on X.

Iran-backed Yemen’s Houthi rebels have intensified attacks on Saudi territory, targeting major oil, military, and residential infrastructure mainly in the Jazan and Riyadh areas, while emergency alerts have also been issued in the Islamic holy city of Mecca, the Red Sea province of Yanbu, Jeddah, and Tabuk.

The Houthis have also imposed a maritime blockade on Saudi vessels transiting in the Red Sea, threatening Riyadh's oil exports that have largely been diverted to its western shores amid the Iranian closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The blockade, which came after the Houthis accused Riyadh of bombing Sanaa International Airport and of perpetuating an embargo of Houthi-controlled territory, has threatened Saudi oil exports, hampering transit along its western coast.

Having enjoyed a tentative peace for years following a UN-backed truce in Yemen's decade-long civil war, tensions between Riyadh and the Iran-backed Houthis flared following an airstrike on Sanaa International Airport that prevented an Iranian plane from landing in mid-July.