Yemen’s Houthis say they attacked Saudi towns, Aramco facilities
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement said on Saturday it had fired 14 drones at several cities in Saudi Arabia, including Saudi Aramco facilities in Jeddah.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said on Friday it had destroyed three drones launched towards southern Saudi Arabia and a fourth over Yemen. He said the group “failed to launch two ballistic missiles” and they fell inside Yemen. Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company, said when contacted by Reuters it would respond as soon as possible.
Houthi army spokesman Yahya Sarea told a televised press conference that the group attacked Aramco refineries in Jeddah as well as military targets in Riyadh, Jeddah, Abha, Jizan and Najran. Sarea’s statement contained inaccuracies. He mentioned the wrong name for Jeddah International Airport and the wrong location for King Khalid’s base, claiming he was in Riyadh when he was actually in the south of the kingdom.
The Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday it attacked 13 targets in a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen. The operation affected weapons depots, air defense systems and drone communication systems in the provinces of Sanaa, Saada and Marib, the coalition said.
The Aramco refinery in Jeddah was decommissioned in 2017, but it has an oil products distribution plant there that the Houthis previously targeted in March. The Houthis have repeatedly launched cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia using drones and missiles since the coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the movement toppled the Saudi-backed government of the capital, Sanaa.
The efforts of the United Nations and the United States to organize a ceasefire in Yemen have stalled. The conflict, seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has been at a military stalemate for years. The Houthis launch an offensive in Marib, the last northern stronghold of the internationally recognized government, as well as in other parts of Yemen.
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