Houthis say targeted 'sensitive sites' in Riyadh, Aramco facilities in Yanbu

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Yemen’s Houthis said on Saturday that they launched strikes targeting “sensitive sites” in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and oil facilities in the kingdom’s port city of Yanbu, hours after residents reported blasts in the Saudi capital.

This is the first time since Yemen’s long-standing civil war resumed that it has threatened the Saudi capital, further shaking a global economy already under pressure by nearly seven months of war between the United States and Iran.

“In response to the Saudi enemy’s attempts to target the capital Sana’a… the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two successful military operations using a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said, in a statement on Telegram.

“The first targeted sensitive sites in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the second targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu.”

The Houthi statement came after firefighters extinguished a blaze on a fuel tank emblazoned with the logo of the Saudi oil giant Aramco at a fuel depot near Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday, according to an AFP journalist.

Smoke plume near Riyadh airport

A large plume of smoke was visible near Riyadh’s main airport after booms were heard and Saudi Arabia sent alerts overnight warning of potential danger around the capital, amid an escalation in attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Reuters video and photographs showed a huge pillar of black smoke rising in the area, with the airport highway, main terminal building and other facilities in the foreground.

Aircraft tracking website FlightRadar24 reported major issues at the Saudi capital’s Riyadh King Khalid International Airport, including cancellations and delays.

The airport was listed under the site’s maximum disruption index of 5.0, meaning the airport was seeing “major problems with long delays and several cancelled flights”.

There was no immediate comment from the Saudi government’s media office in response to Reuters’ questions about the smoke and the overnight alerts.

Saudi civil defence sent the alerts by phone overnight for potential danger in Riyadh and the city of Al-Kharj east of the capital, before issuing an all-clear on Saturday morning.

“The area is under a hostile aerial threat,” said a message received just before 3:00am by Riyadh residents, urging them to stay indoors.

AFP journalists then heard two explosions, before the Saudi civil defence agency lifted the alert half an hour later. A Reuters journalist in Riyadh’s Olaya area also heard booms before the all-clear was sent.

“I heard the alarm, then my windows shook,” a Riyadh resident, 27, living in the city’s north, told AFP. “It was definitely scary. I was not expecting this.”

Another resident described the attack as “terrifying”.

“I was extremely anxious — especially because, unlike previous times, the ‘all-clear’ signal didn’t come right away,” the central Riyadh resident said.

Saudi Arabia has not commented on the threat mentioned in the warnings sent overnight to residents of several regions and has not identified where it originated from.

Although some alerts had been issued in Riyadh this year after the start of the US-Iran war, these were the first since the escalation began with the Houthis in July.

The incident comes days after Riyadh accused the Houthis of targeting Makkah on Wednesday, denouncing it as a “cowardly terrorist attack” on the holy city, which welcomes millions of pilgrims each year.

Houthis strongly denied the accusation, calling it a “worn-out lie”.

Houthi attacks

The Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen and much of the north, have been launching attacks towards Saudi Arabia since declaring a naval blockade against Riyadh in July, with strikes targeting Saudi vessels in the Red Sea.

The attacks have created new threats to global oil supplies, putting at risk trade via Bab al-Mandab — the main alternative Red Sea route for Gulf exports — while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains blockaded.

The Houthis insist there is no threat to shipping in the sea lane — except for Saudi ships, from the world’s leading crude exporter.

On Friday, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had foiled unspecified “criminal attempts” in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, blaming Saudi Arabia and vowing a response.

The group, which seized Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast in a lightning advance this month, says the Saudi Air Force has conducted hundreds of airstrikes against it in recent days.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) in a statement on Friday “condemned in the strongest terms continued Houthi attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including attacks impacting civilian and energy infrastructure, which have resulted in the injury of civilians, including women and children”.

In the statement, the UNSC also condemned “Houthi military escalation in Yemen”.

The US, according to Axios, last week refused to strike the Houthis at Saudi Arabia’s request.

On Thursday, Washington approved a $24.3 billion sale of 48 F-35 fighter jets to the kingdom to help Riyadh “deter current and future threats”, the US State Department said.

The attack targeting Riyadh comes as the Houthis improve their defences in newly conquered territory along Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, with members of the group telling AFP they have been installing radar and digging tunnels.

The United Nations said on Friday that the renewed fighting had displaced more than 112,000 people while nearly 3,000 others had fled across the sea to Djibouti.

The war in Yemen broke out in 2014 when the Houthis seized control of the capital Sanaa and other regions, triggering a military intervention led by Saudi Arabia in March 2015.

The fragile truce reached in 2022 between the warring parties collapsed in July, when the Houthis defied Riyadh’s control of Yemeni airspace by allowing an Iranian aircraft to land in Yemen.

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