Houthis claim Saudi oil facility attack as Yemen fighting worsens

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they attacked a Saudi oil facility south of Riyadh as hostilities between the group and Saudi Arabia intensified. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said ballistic missiles and drones targeted the facility and that fires broke out. Flames and smoke were reported rising from an Aramco site south of Riyadh, although the supplied material does not provide an independent assessment of the damage.

Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV said Saudi aircraft carried out 26 strikes on Sanaa. Correspondents in the Yemeni capital reported explosions and warplanes firing missiles. Al-Masirah also reported attacks on telecommunications infrastructure in Saada, a Houthi stronghold.

The strikes are part of a renewed conflict between the Houthis, who control much of north-western Yemen including Sanaa, and Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which is based in Aden and controls much of the south and east. The fighting resumed after four years of fragile calm. The supplied material says tensions escalated after an Iranian plane carried a Houthi delegation to Sanaa without Saudi authorisation, followed by Saudi strikes on Sanaa airport and Houthi attacks on Saudi territory.

The renewed war has deepened Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. The World Food Programme warned that three-quarters of the population could not meet basic food needs. Fighting around Taiz reportedly killed combatants on both sides, though the rival figures have not been independently verified.

Separately, Iraq’s state-owned Oil Tanker Company said it had transported two million barrels of Iraqi crude through the Strait of Hormuz aboard a large crude carrier. The company said the operation was its first of its kind in decades and would give state oil marketer SOMO greater flexibility in selling the crude.