RIYADH — Yemen’s Houthi movement said it attacked a Saudi Aramco facility in Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones, claiming fires at the site, as fighting with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government intensified, Al Jazeera reported.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement posted on X on Saturday that the group carried out a “military operation with ballistic missiles and drones” that were “precise and direct” and “led to fires breaking out.” AFP photographs showed a large plume of smoke and fire rising near an Aramco facility south of Riyadh on October 3.
Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s recognized government, later said the Houthi claims of targeting Riyadh were “misleading,” remarks carried by Saudi media. Early Sunday the coalition said its forces conducted 97 targeting operations against Houthi reinforcements on the Tor al-Baha and Taiz fronts. Yemeni government forces spokesman Col. Majed Abdullah al-Nazili said the attacks hit at least 260 Houthi fighters and destroyed or disabled 44 military vehicles.
Fighting has intensified since a fragile 2022 truce collapsed in July. In mid-September the Houthis seized Mocha and strategic islands in the Bab al-Mandeb strait before anti-Houthi forces stabilized front lines. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced since fighting restarted. Yemen’s war dates to the Houthis’ 2014 seizure of Sanaa.
Sources: Al Jazeera, AFP
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