Yemen’s Houthi fighters say they have targeted two Saudi tanks attempting to cross into the country’s north, where the Shia forces are based.

The fighters said on Thursday the Saudi military continued to attack positions within the Yemeni borders, saying the Saudi forces had fired more than 500 rockets on several cities in the northern Sa’adah province.

The heavy attacks mark a step-up in the joint Saudi-Yemeni offensive aimed at wiping out the Houthis, who took arms in a bid to put an end to what they call the Sunni-dominated central government’s discrimination and repression against the country’s Shia minority.

Hundreds of people, many of them civilians, have been killed and tens of thousands have been displaced since the Yemeni government’s latest offensive against the Houthis was launched in August.

The Saudi military forces joined the Yemeni army following cross-border tensions with the Yemeni fighters and engaged in bombarding the Houthi positions.

Houthis have repeatedly accused the neighboring Arab kingdom of using forbidden weaponry to strike the fighters — not on the Saudi soil as Riyadh claims but in villages deep inside the Yemeni territory — and killing civilians.

They also accuse Riyadh of employing al-Qaeda militants and Sunni extremists to help quell the Shia movement.

MRS/AKM