Saudi Arabia said attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeting energy facilities in the kingdom’s southern region on Tuesday sparked fires and led to the temporary shutdown of some operations.
Houthis strike
Saudi oil facilities
Saudi Aramco facilities, including the refinery in Jizan and the bulk plant in Abha, have been struck alongside King Khalid Airbase and Abha International Airport, local media reported.
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“Several energy sector facilities and installations in the southern region of the kingdom were targeted this morning,” an Energy Ministry source was quoted as saying by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The attacks caused fires at several locations, resulting in a temporary halt to some operations, the source said. Several people were also injured.
Saudi Arabia has also accused the Houthis of attacking civilian and economic sites in the kingdom, wounding at least 73 civilians, including women and children, Al Jazeera reported.
Attacks hit four Saudi provinces
The accusations came as fighting intensified in Yemen, where the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government has launched a counteroffensive to retake territory from the Iran-backed Houthis.
Major-General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, said the Houthi attacks had targeted civilian and economic sites in the provinces of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jizan and Najran.
Al-Maliki did not specify when those attacks took place.
He described the attacks as a “dangerous escalation” and a “blatant violation” of Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty. He also warned that they posed a direct threat to the kingdom’s citizens and residents.
Al-Maliki said the coalition would take “all necessary operational measures” to confront the attacks and act against the sources of the threat.
The Saudi Ministry of Energy, in a separate statement, said several “energy sector facilities and installations” in southern areas of the kingdom were hit early Tuesday.
The ministry said the attacks wounded a “number of citizens and residents” and caused “fires at several locations”, forcing a “temporary halt in some operations”. The Houthis made no immediate comment on the allegations.
Houthis accuse Riyadh of air strike
Earlier, the Houthis had accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out an air strike on a prison in Al-Hazm, in the northern Al-Jawf governorate, and killing at least seven people.
The group said the “ongoing Saudi aggression against Yemen will not go unpunished”. Riyadh has not commented on the allegation.
Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year.
Fighting between the two sides largely stopped after a United Nations-brokered truce in 2022. However, hostilities resumed following the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran in February.
Conflict spreads across Yemen
Hostilities restarted in July when the Houthis launched missiles and drones towards Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport following an attack on Sanaa airport.
Later that month, the Houthis announced a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia and began attacking Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea.
On Thursday, the Houthis launched a major offensive, attempting to advance through western Taiz and southern Hodeidah towards the port city of Al-Makha, also known as Mocha, and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea.
Fighting was initially concentrated west of Taiz and south of Hodeidah but has now spread to the provinces of Al-Dhalea, Marib, Al-Jawf and Al-Bayda.
The government is seeking to stretch Houthi forces and increase pressure on the group.
The World Health Organization said some 1,078 people have been killed or wounded since August 24, while more than 21,000 people have been displaced since Thursday.
