The Saudi-backed government of Yemen on Sunday announced a major military campaign against the Houthi militia, a key Iranian ally, plunging the Middle East deeper into war.

The new operation threatens to open a new front in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and further entangle the United States in the widening regional conflict that it began more than seven months ago.

More than 200 U.S. intelligence and military analysts are assisting the Saudi government in command centers inside the kingdom, helping to analyze and select targets in support of its Yemeni allies, according to one current and one former U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. The United States is also providing aerial refueling for Saudi warplanes conducting defensive air patrols, they added.

In a televised speech, Rashad al-Alimi, the leader of the internationally recognized Yemeni government — which depends heavily on Saudi Arabia for financial and military support — said that his armed forces were seeking to reclaim the territory lost to the Houthis over the past 12 years.

In a statement hours later, Maj. General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for a Saudi military coalition in Yemen, said that Saudi Arabia had the right to defend itself from Houthi attacks and pledged “full operational support” to the Yemeni military to fight the militia until it is “eliminated.”

Asked about the campaign, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi political official, accused Saudi Arabia of waging war in Yemen to “impose its tutelage and interfere in sovereign decision-making.”

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