Houthis claim ballistic missile and drone attacks on Aramco facilities in Riyadh and Khurais

The Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, declared on Sunday that his forces have launched a ballistic missile and drones at facilities of the Saudi energy giant Aramco in the capital Riyadh and in the oil-bearing area of Khurais in the east of the kingdom, as Al Jazeera reports.

“Both operations successfully reached their targets,” Saree said in a statement published on the social network X. “The strikes were precise, causing large fires at the targeted facilities.” Until the moment of reporting, Saudi Arabia had given no official reaction to the claim.

According to Saree, the attacks were carried out in retaliation for Saudi air strikes on Houthi-controlled areas: “The enemy continues the unjust aggression against our people by launching more aggressive air strikes, which over the last 12 hours reached 50 air and missile strikes against the capital Sanaa and the governorates of al-Jawf, Taiz, Amran, Hajjah and Saada,” he is quoted as saying. The Houthis also threatened further bombings of Saudi military and oil facilities.

The development comes amid escalating fighting in Yemen: the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces announced a new military campaign to retake territories taken by the Houthis, while fierce ground fighting continues in the Kahboub mountains overlooking the Bab al-Mandeb strait, according to Al Jazeera’s reports. Analyst Hisham al-Omeisy of the European Institute of Peace warns that the Houthis are today much stronger than a few years ago and that defeating them will require “far more resources”.