Houthis claim attacks on Saudi oil facilities

Othe Yemeni Houthis rebels, supported by Iran, claimed today to have attacked the East-West pipeline in Saudi Arabia, the Yanbu oil terminal in the Red Sea, and an Aramco facility in Riyadh.

The pipeline, which ends in Yanbu, allows Saudi Arabia to transport part of its oil for export, bypassing the Strait of Ormuz, located on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, which has been blocked by Iran since the start of the Middle East war on 28 February.

One operation “has targeted the bomb station 7 of the East-West pipeline using a drone,” while another one has hit “the Yanbu oil facility with a ballistic missile,” declared on social network X the spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree.

He also reported an attack on an oil giant Aramco installation in Riyadh.

Saree stated that these three actions, together with two previous attacks on a Saudi airport and an air base near the Yemen border, were successful.

Since the resumption of the conflict in Yemen in July, after a four-year period of relative calm, Saudi Arabia has been a frequent target of Houthis, which attacks, in particular, the airports, energy infrastructure and military facilities of the kingdom, which is allied with the Yemeni government.

The Houthis, which have carried out almost daily attacks since October, have reached the pipeline on several occasions. On Monday, Riyadh reported being the target of an attack, which triggered a fire, but without interrupting operations.

The coalition led by Riyadh to fight the Houthis, in support of the Yemeni government, announced that it intercepted several missiles and drones between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, including a drone in the Riyadh region and another in eastern Saudi Arabia, without being able to establish a link with the demands of the Houthi.

The coalition also reported, on Wednesday night, having destroyed two ballistic missiles targeting the west of the kingdom.

Two other drones were destroyed in the south of the country and in the region surrounding the sacred city of Mecca, the coalition reported on Wednesday night.

According to Saudi Civil Defense, missile debris fell into the village of Sabouha, located about 35 kilometres from Mecca.

The Houthi denied, on several occasions, having targeted the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina.