Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen claim new attacks on Saudi Arabia

CAIRO (AP) — Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen overnight claimed new attacks on neighboring Saudi Arabia, as the Saudi-backed Yemeni government described the rebels' swift advance along the Red Sea coast as a “painful” development in a new front in the Iran war.

The Houthis' capture of a key port city and an island on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, in recent days has alarmed markets and Yemeni civilians who fear a return to devastating civil war.

The Houthis claimed more attacks with missiles and drones on Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen's internationally recognized government.

A Houthi military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, claimed in a statement that they targeted a military base in Sharurah province in Saudi Arabia's Najran region. He didn’t provide evidence or say when the attack occurred.

The Saudi civil defense overnight said a projectile fell in al-Tawwal governorate near the border with Yemen along the Red Sea, injuring two people and damaging a mosque and several other buildings. The statement blamed the Houthis. It also said sirens went off in Sharurah province but didn’t report casualties or damage.

There was no Saudi statement Sunday on any new attacks targeting the Houthis, who have been hitting Saudi oil infrastructure and shipping as part of a recently declared blockade.

While the rebels have said there is no threat to other commercial shipping, markets remain wary and oil prices have risen again.

A senior government official in Yemen said its forces will return to the Red Sea coast and fight back, after people fleeing the Houthi advance told The Associated Press they saw forces withdrawing and urging people to run.

Sultan al-Arada, a member of the ruling presidential council, described the collapse of government forces in the port city of Mokha and elsewhere on Yemen’s west coast as “painful and regrettable.”

Al-Arada, also governor of central Marib province, said in the televised interview aired late Saturday that forces “are currently regrouping and will return to the battle in one form or another.”

On Friday, a senior military official with Yemen’s internationally recognized government blamed “lack of coordination” between Yemen’s army and multiple allied militias, saying it gave the Houthis “a priceless opportunity.”

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t allowed to speak to the media, also said they were stunned that the Saudi air force didn't act to prevent the capture of Mokha, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the strait.

The National Resistance, a government-allied force that had controlled coastal areas including Mokha, said more than 500 government fighters were killed on the west coast over the past four weeks — its first comprehensive toll. It said about 1,500 others had been wounded in the fighting since Aug. 9.

Its statement said more than 1,000 Houthis had been killed in Hodeida and Taiz provinces.

The National Resistance, commanded by Tariq Saleh, a nephew of Yemen’s late leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, vowed to fight back until "Yemen is liberated from Iran’s proxies.”

Yemen’s internationally recognized government and Saudi Arabia have been battling the Houthis for 12 years. The escalation has ended a ceasefire that had largely stopped civil war across Yemen since 2022.

Now the number of Yemenis fleeing the fighting is soaring. On Sunday, the International Organization for Migration said over 85,000 people have been displaced since the beginning of the month.

The Houthis' advance also puts the Iran-backed rebels just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the U.S. military base in Djibouti, on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb. It's the main U.S. base in Africa and one of several foreign military bases in Djibouti, including those of China, France and Japan.

The small Horn of Africa nation is already seeing the arrival of Yemenis making the perilous crossing of the strait. More than 2,000 people have reached Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration said Sunday.

Djibouti's Economy and Finance Minister Ilyas M. Dawaleh, said on X that the country's navy, coast guard and other specialized agencies were conducting rescue operations and providing emergency assistance.

Associated Press writer Omar Farouk in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to this report.

Displaced Yemenis, from Al Khawkhah city, 400 kilometers (249 miles) south west of Sanaa, walk past their temporary shelter in Aden, Yemen, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)

Displaced Yemenis, from Al Khawkhah city, 400 kilometers (249 miles) south west of Sanaa, wait to enter a temporary shelter in Aden, Yemen, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)

This image taken from undated video released by the Ansar Allah Media Office, the media arm of Yemen's Houthi rebels, on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, shows, according to the group, Houthi fighters among vehicles abandoned by Saudi-backed forces during a Houthi advance at an undisclosed location in southern Yemen. (Ansar Allah Media Office via AP)

This image taken from undated video released by the Ansar Allah Media Office, the media arm of Yemen's Houthi rebels, on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, shows Houthi fighters chant after praying beside military vehicles during what the group says was their advance against Saudi-backed forces at an undisclosed location in southern Yemen. (Ansar Allah Media Office via AP)

This image taken from undated video released by the Ansar Allah Media Office, the media arm of Yemen's Houthi rebels, on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, shows Houthi fighters inspecting what the group says is an abandoned position during their advance against Saudi-backed forces at an undisclosed location in southern Yemen. (Ansar Allah Media Office via AP)

People walk at a street in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Yemeni civilians celebrate while riding in the back of a pickup truck in the Bani Matar district, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, as they follow a convoy carrying Houthi prisoners freed in Mokha on its way to Sanaa following the Houthi takeover of the southern Red Sea port city. (AP Photo/STR)

Displaced Yemenis rest at a temporary shelter in the Dar Saad district of Aden, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, after fleeing Houthi attacks in the western coastal cities of al-Khokha and Mokha. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)

This photo provided by the Saudi Press Agency shows damage to a building after a projectile fell in Al-Tawwal, Jazan, Saudi Arabia, on the southern border with Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

DUBLIN (AP) — It's no secret that President Donald Trump loves the game of golf. He likes to watch, play and even design courses. He also isn't shy about his friendships with the pros.

Trump is spending the weekend at his golf resort in the village of Doonbeg, Ireland, where he is watching the Irish Open being played there. Irish golfer Shane Lowry held a four-shot lead going into Sunday’s final day of competition. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin was expected to join Trump for the match.

Trump's friend, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, said golf is one of the things the president does for fun.

“The president works all day, every day. And there are two things that he does for enjoyment," Lutnick told reporters recently. "He plays golf on the weekend and he builds. He loves to build.”

Trump has built friendships with some of the pros. He name drops and lavishes praise on them whenever he talks about them.

“I have so many friends that are professional, top professional golfers,” Trump told Fox News Channel's “The Five” earlier this year. He then named Rory McIlroy,Tiger Woods,Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler, among them.

He also posts pictures on social media of him with pro golfers after their rounds. Trump has given awards to some and invited them to the White House. Others are helping him redesign Washington-area golf courses.

Here's some of what Trump has had to say about them.

Trump said DeChambeau is among the “great pros.” The two have played together and DeChambeau has appeared at the White House. He celebrated his first U.S. Open title in 2020 at one of Trump’s golf properties in New York. Last year, he was chosen as the chairperson of Trump’s reconstituted version of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, an advisory committee.

The South African pro golfer was in the Oval Office in May 2025 as part of the delegation accompanying Cyril Ramaphosa, his country's president, to a meeting with Trump. Fellow South African golfer Retief Goosen was also part of the group.

“Ernie Els is a great golfer. He's a truly great golfer and Retief Goosen, who's another really — we call him really a great golfer, too, Ernie, right?” Trump said. “These two guys are fantastic, and we could add Gary to the group, Gary Player. What a group of golfers South Africa has had. There must be something in the water, right?”

Trump awarded Player, who is considered one of the sport's greatest golfers, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2021. It is one of the most prestigious honors an American president can give a civilian.

After winning this year's Masters, McIlroy was a guest at Trump's White House state dinner for King Charles III and Queen Camilla in April 2026. Trump recognized the six-time major champion from Northern Ireland as he spoke about the “unconquerable courage” he said is shared by the United States and the United Kingdom.

“And speaking of that, where’s Rory McIlroy? ... Stand up, Rory. Will you please? That was unconquerable courage. That was very good, Rory,” Trump said of the Masters win.

“I had to interrupt my speech because I watched that man win a tournament that was, that was a tough, that was a tough one. Congratulations. Very proud of you,” Trump continued.

Trump has also said McIlroy “loves” the Doonbeg course.

“I love Jack. OK? Jack is great,” Trump told Fox News host Trey Gowdy in August after he asked who the president would have in his “dream foursome.”

Trump has enlisted the retired Nicklaus, who designs golf courses, to help him redesign the golf courses at Joint Base Andrews, the military base in the Maryland suburbs of Washington where Air Force One is parked.

“So great,” Trump told Gowdy about Scheffler, the top-ranked player on the PGA Tour.

Sorenstam, the only LPGA player to shoot 59 and a winner of the career Grand Slam, played golf with Trump, Player and the late Sen. Lindsey Graham at his course in Virginia in 2019.

Trump awarded Sorenstam the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which brought criticism to the Swedish great because the ceremony took place on Jan. 7, 2021, one day after the violent riot at the Capitol.

Sorenstam is now host of an LPGA event called The Annika. Last year, she gave a sponsor invitation to Kai Trump, the president’s granddaughter.

“I happen to love Tiger. Tiger is a great guy,” the president told Gowdy.

Days later, Woods pleaded no contest to a reckless driving charge and a judge suspended his driver’s license for five years following a March rollover crash in Florida. He was arrested in March after his SUV clipped a truck on a residential road near his home on Jupiter Island.

Two pain pills were found in Woods’ pocket and he showed signs of impairment. Woods’ career has been derailed by multiple back and knee surgeries, car crashes and dependence on pain medication.

After the court appearance, Trump repeated to reporters that he thinks Woods is a “great guy” and said he is “unique in so many ways, and especially as an athlete, but also as a man.”

He said he thought the case was resolved fairly and that he’d previously suggested to Woods that he get someone to drive him around because of the pain he suffers.

Trump called Woods a “true legend” when he awarded him a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019. Woods is currently dating Vanessa Trump, the ex-wife of Donald Trump Jr.

AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson in Jacksonville, Fla., contributed to this report.

FILE - Donald Trump, left, talks with Annika Sorenstam, of Stockholm, Sweden, during the LPGA Tour Championships ProAm round as they wait to tee off on the 15th tee at the Trump International Gulf Club, Nov. 20, 2002, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)

FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with retired golfer Jack Nicklaus during the Club Golf Awards at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Fla., March 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump, right, presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tiger Woods during a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, May 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

FILE - South African golfers Retief Goosen, left, and Ernie Els look on as President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Golfers Bryson DeChambeau, center, and Gary Player, left, speak with President Donald Trump as children observe on the south lawn of the White House, May 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

U.S. President Donald Trump looks over to golfer Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland during the Irish Open at the Trump International Golf Links course in Doonbeg, Ireland, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

U.S. President Donald Trump applauds to golfer Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland during the Irish Open at the Trump International Golf Links course in Doonbeg, Ireland, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)