Middle East updates: Houthi rebels say they attacked Saudi oil sites

Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they have launched attacks on Saudi oil facilities and airports while the Saudi-led coalition fighting the group says it downed two missiles as clashes between the two sides intensify.

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government said the Houthis also fired three ballistic missiles at coast guard sites in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden.

Saudi authorities did not comment directly on the Houthi statements although they reported missile debris falling near the site of one of the purported oil targets.

It was not immediately clear if any of the reported attacks had hit their targets in the kingdom or had been intercepted.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, an Aramco facility in Yanbu, the Rabigh oil refinery, crude oil pumping stations and the East-West Pipeline.

He also said the Iran-aligned group targeted King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, an airport in Najran and an air base in Khamis Mushait.

Mr Saree said the latest hits were in retaliation for Saudi attacks on Yemen, putting them at 100 air strikes over the past 24 hours.

Houthi-linked media on Saturday reported deadly air strikes by the Saudi coalition on the Houthi-ruled capital Sanaa.

At least four people were killed and several others injured in a strike on a house in the Asr area in the western part of Sanaa, the Houthi-affiliated television al-Masirah reported.

The Houthi-controlled news agency Saba meanwhile said Saudi jets had targeted a cement factory in the Hamdan district in Sanaa, killing and injuring an unspecified number of civilians.

Al-Masirah later reported that eight were killed and 10 others injured in this attack.

The Saudi-led coalition earlier said it destroyed two ballistic missiles fired by Houthis towards Yanbu and Taif.

Saudi Civil Defence said debris from intercepted missiles had fallen in the Mecca and Medina regions, home to Islam’s holiest sites visited by millions of Muslim pilgrims every year.

It said parts of the intercepted missiles fell in Wadi al-Mughammas in Mecca, while debris also fell in areas in Jeddah, Taif and Rabigh.

It was not clear if that was linked to the Houthis’ reported targeting of Rabigh oil refinery.

The renewed fighting has shattered a 2022 United Nations-brokered truce that largely halted cross-border attacks between the Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government, and the Houthi rebels, who control Sanaa.

In Yemen, the Interior Ministry of the internationally recognised government said two of the Houthis’ missiles had struck a coast guard headquarters, while a third hit a coast guard building in the Tawahi district.

Houthi spokesman Mr Saree said the group’s forces had targeted Saudi-backed military gatherings at what he called al-Nasr camp and a naval military base in Aden, saying Saudi officers were overseeing the mobilisation there.

There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led coalition on that assertion.

Earlier on Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense briefly issued alerts warning residents of potential danger in Taif and Yanbu, as well as in the holy city of Mecca and the kingdom’s second-largest city Jeddah.

About 10 minutes later, the agency said the threat had passed.

The Houthi movement warned airlines earlier this month against using Saudi airspace, exempting only the airspace over Mecca and Medina, as they intensified attacks on the kingdom.

with DPA