Newsletters
Yemen's Houthi movement said Saturday, Sept. 19, that it had struck "sensitive sites" in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, as well as oil facilities belonging to state energy giant Aramco in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, the latest claim in a monthslong campaign of cross-border strikes on the kingdom.
The announcement comes hours after residents of Riyadh reported explosions overnight into Saturday and after Saudi civil defense authorities issued, then lifted, warnings of a possible aerial threat in the capital and the nearby city of Al-Kharj.
A large column of black smoke and flames was seen Saturday near King Khalid International Airport, appearing to rise from a fuel storage facility, though Saudi officials had not publicly explained the cause of the fire as of this writing.
Explosions were reported in Riyadh's Olaya district before authorities issued the aerial-threat warnings. The all-clear was announced Saturday morning, but the fire and smoke near the airport were still visible afterward.
The Saudi government's media office had not issued an official statement addressing either the overnight alerts or the Houthi claim as of Saturday evening.
Saudi Arabia has not confirmed damage or casualties associated with the claimed strikes, consistent with its response to previous Houthi claims of attacks on the kingdom.
Saturday's claim extends a pattern established since fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces resumed in July, an escalation regional analysts have called the most serious since a U.N.-brokered truce curbed large-scale hostilities in 2022.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted Aramco infrastructure in Yanbu, the western terminus of Saudi Arabia's east-west pipeline and a key artery for crude exports that allows the kingdom to ship oil without transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
The group has also claimed strikes this year on Aramco sites in Jizan and Najran, as well as on Saudi military airbases including Khamis Mushait.
The Houthis say their attacks are retaliation for Saudi airstrikes on Houthi-held territory in Yemen, where civil war has continued since 2014.
The group has maintained that its targets are oil and military facilities rather than civilian or religious sites, a distinction it repeated after Saudi Arabia accused it earlier in September of attempting to strike Mecca with a drone, an allegation the Houthis rejected.
The renewed conflict has displaced more than 100,000 people inside Yemen, with thousands more crossing the Red Sea to Djibouti, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
The Houthis have also declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, adding further strain to a shipping corridor already disrupted by wider regional conflict.
Aramco has previously said earlier attacks caused some production interruptions but that it expected operations to be restored quickly; the company has not commented on Saturday's claim.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
