Houthis claim strike on Saudi energy facility as Yemen fighting intensifies 

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have said they attacked an Aramco facility in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with ballistic missiles and drones, as fighting between the Iran-aligned group and Saudi Arabia escalates.

In a statement posted on X on Saturday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had carried out a “military operation with ballistic missiles and drones” that targeted Aramco in Riyadh.

He claimed the strikes were “precise and direct” and “led to fires breaking out” at the site.

Saudi authorities have not reported an attack, nor has Aramco, the state oil giant, commented on the cause of the fire.

A large plume of smoke and fire was seen rising near an Aramco facility in Riyadh on Saturday.

Early on Sunday, the Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government, said its armed forces carried out 97 “precise targeting operations” against Houthi reinforcements on the Tor al-Baha front and the Taiz axis, using warplanes, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers.

Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nazili, the spokesman for Yemen’s internationally recognised government forces, said the attacks targeted “at least 260 Houthi fighters and destroyed or disabled 44 military vehicles”.

Late last month, the Houthis said they had attacked Aramco facilities in Yanbu, a Red Sea port on Saudi Arabia’s west coast.

Saudi Arabia said at the time it intercepted six ballistic missiles fired towards Taif and Yanbu and reported no damage to Aramco sites.

Earlier this week, the Saudi-led coalition said the Houthis attacked a power station in the Muslim holy city of Medina on Tuesday.

The fighting has intensified since a fragile 2022 truce collapsed in July.

In mid-September, the Houthis seized the port city of Mocha and strategic islands in the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a vital route for global oil shipments, before anti-Houthi forces stabilised front lines.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced since fighting restarted.

Yemen has been at war since the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014, forcing the Yemeni government to retreat to Aden.