The Houthis deny firing drones at Medina, and the death toll from the Shabwa training camp strike rises to 73

Two accounts of the same Wednesday now stand against each other, and neither side is giving ground.

The Saudi led coalition in Yemen said it intercepted drones over Medina, the second holiest city in Islam, and over the Eastern region on Wednesday. Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesperson, said the group had launched no drones toward Medina and had conducted no military operations toward Saudi Arabia on Wednesday at all. The denial came two days after the Houthis claimed attacks on an Aramco site in Yanbu, the Shaybah oilfield and the airports at Riyadh and Abha, and struck a training camp full of government recruits. Local authorities in Yemen said on Tuesday that the death toll from that strike, three ballistic missiles fired into the Al Alam camp in Shabwa province during a training exercise on Monday, has risen to 73. The fighting between the Saudi led coalition and the Houthis, who hold the capital Sanaa, is the most serious since a United Nations brokered truce largely halted cross border attacks in 2022.

Diplomacy is running behind the missiles. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a television interview aired on Tuesday that Iran has received no response from Saudi Arabia or from the Houthis to its offer to help broker talks between them, an offer Tehran made as the Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia intensified earlier this month. Araqchi also addressed the possibility of Egypt joining the Saudi campaign. "Any foreign intervention would complicate matters," he said, adding that Cairo has previously told Tehran it would not directly interfere in the Yemeni conflict. Egypt has said it is ready to give Saudi Arabia the support it needs to defend its security, and a vote in Egypt's parliament on a possible military move against the Houthis has been delayed until October 26.

The strain is showing in prices and in Saudi plans. Brent crude rose to 109.64 dollars a barrel early on Wednesday on supply worries, as of October 21, with traders watching Red Sea shipping risks and threats to Saudi oil infrastructure. More than 45 percent of departures from Saudi airports have been cancelled since October 8, and on Monday the kingdom postponed its flagship Future Investment Initiative conference until next year. In Taiz, Yemen's third largest city, the United Nations says Houthi road closures are stopping fuel and supplies from reaching the population, and more than 250,000 people have been displaced since the fighting reignited.