Houthi military says it struck Aramco sites and Riyadh airport and will continue operations

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SANAA, Yemen — The Houthi military said on Wednesday it had attacked Saudi Aramco sites and an airport serving Riyadh, and said further operations would follow.

Yahya Saree, the group’s military spokesman, said the operation used ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, Agence France-Presse reported.

He named three targets. They were Aramco facilities in Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, King Khalid International Airport, and the Aramco refinery in Riyadh.

Saree said operations toward Saudi depths would continue in the coming days, according to the same report.

He said the missiles and drones hit their targets and caused damage and fires.

Yemen Herald could not independently verify that all three sites were hit. Saudi authorities have confirmed a strike and a fire at one building in Dhahran. They have not confirmed the wider damage Saree described.

An Aramco administrative building in Dhahran was struck by a missile on Tuesday night, The National reported. The strike caused a fire.

No deaths or injuries resulted, the Saudi Press Agency said.

The Saudi energy ministry said the strike took place in Dhahran. Neither Aramco nor Saudi authorities said publicly which building was hit.

Bloomberg reported that the building was Aramco’s executive headquarters. A company source told Reuters it was a headquarters complex.

Residents described a powerful explosion, according to The National. One said relatives closer to the site saw smoke and flames.

Debris from two cruise missiles intercepted over Riyadh injured four people, Saudi state television said, citing the civil defence authority.

The injured were two women, a man and a child. The debris damaged 15 homes, according to the same account.

The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted one ballistic missile heading towards Dhahran. It said it brought down a missile aimed at Haradh and three drones north of Riyadh.

Late on Tuesday the coalition said it had struck energy sites in Houthi-held parts of Yemen.

The targets included the al-Sabahah station in Sanaa and underground fuel reserves, the coalition said. It also named fuel-loading berths in Hodeidah, Sanaa and Dhamar.

The coalition told civilians near the oil facility to leave before the attack.

Video showed a large fireball over Sanaa. The scale of the damage was not immediately clear.

The Houthis said fuel reserves had been dispersed before the strikes. That account has not been verified.

Saree said Saudi Arabia had carried out 2,281 airstrikes and missile attacks on Yemen during the current escalation.

That figure comes from the Houthi side. It has not been independently confirmed, and the coalition has not published a comparable count.

Yemeni sources said Saudi warplanes carried out four airstrikes on Houthi gatherings in Harib district, in Marib governorate. Those sources were not named.

Yemen Herald could not verify the Harib account, the number of strikes or who was hit.

The Houthi administration in Sanaa and the internationally recognised government routinely dispute each other’s accounts of the fighting.

Wednesday’s announcement followed earlier attacks on Riyadh’s main airport.

At least 12 people were killed and more than 309 wounded there on Oct. 10, Saudi authorities said.

The dead included four Saudis, two Bangladeshis and one person each from the United States, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Sudan and Egypt, according to the same account.

Some of the wounded were in a critical condition, the General Authority of Civil Aviation said. Airport operations were suspended while the authority assessed the damage.

The Saudi-led coalition described that attack as a war crime and said it would respond.

An attack on the same airport the previous day killed three Saudi nationals, Al Jazeera reported.

The head of the Houthi media office said on social media that the group had shut down Riyadh’s international airport.

A separate projectile fell near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, according to the same report.

Nawaf Obaid, a researcher at King’s College London, said an initial assessment suggested a ballistic missile was used in the Oct. 10 attack.

The Houthis had claimed a ballistic missile strike on the Riyadh airport the previous Thursday, Al Jazeera reported.

Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition in Yemen since 2015.

Aramco is Saudi Arabia’s state oil company. Its main offices are in Dhahran.

The coalition said its operations were aimed at reducing the group’s ability to threaten Saudi Arabia, Yemen and international waterways.

Hodeidah and Dhamar lie in territory the group controls. Sanaa has been under its control since 2014.

Yemen’s war flared again in July, Middle East Eye reported. Fighting between the Houthis and the government resumed in September, according to The New Arab.

Houthi forces have since taken the Red Sea coast and encircled Taiz, the outlet reported.

Al Jazeera reported that the group captured al-Turbah by Oct. 4. That cut the last main road between Taiz city and government-held areas.

The United Nations humanitarian plan for Yemen recorded more than 22 million people in need this year. It listed 18.3 million as acutely food insecure.

More than 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, according to the plan. It recorded 516,157 severe cases.

The plan recorded 5.2 million internally displaced people. It sought $2.16 billion to reach 12 million of those in need.

Dhahran lies in the Eastern Province, the centre of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry.

King Khalid International Airport lies north of Riyadh. Saudi authorities did not say whether airport operations were affected.