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Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement targeted a Saudi Aramco oil refinery on Saudi Arabia's southern Red Sea coast on Tuesday, according to rebel media, marking an escalation in attacks on the kingdom days after the group declared a maritime blockade.
The Houthi-run Saba news agency said the group "targeted the Aramco refinery in Jazan with a number of drones," describing the strike as retaliation "in response to airspace violations over the governorates of Saada and Hajjah" in northern Yemen. The report cited a military source and did not detail the extent of any damage.
The strike comes as Yemen, a country already reshaped by more than a decade of civil war, has been pulled further into the broader Middle East conflict. In July, the Houthis abandoned a 2022 truce with Yemen's internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government, resuming attacks on both government-held territory and Saudi Arabia itself.
The truce had brought a fragile calm to a war that began in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led military coalition to intervene the following year on behalf of the government. That intervention led to years of Saudi airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas.
Tensions sharpened last month when the Houthis welcomed the landing of an Iranian plane in Sanaa, an event that touched off a series of retaliatory attacks between the group and its adversaries. The Houthis subsequently announced a maritime blockade targeting Saudi Arabia, the government's principal backer in the conflict.
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Since fighting resumed, the Houthis have struck Saudi tankers in the Red Sea and carried out attacks on Yemeni government forces. The group has also repeatedly targeted Saudi oil infrastructure and airports in the past, a pattern consistent with Tuesday's strike on the Jazan refinery.
The United Nations said it was "deeply concerned" by reports of the strikes. A spokesman for Secretary-General António Guterres warned that "such attacks risk further entangling Yemen in the wider regional confrontation, at a time when the region is already facing intense pressure and regional trade and energy flows are under severe strain."
The warning reflects broader concern that renewed fighting in Yemen could compound instability already affecting shipping and energy markets across the region.
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