Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed Sunday they struck an oil facility on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, hours after the kingdom said it had put out a fire there.
The group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the Houthis had “succeeded in targeting the Aramco refinery in Jazan with a drone, and the strike was precise.”
He added the attack on the facility operated by Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil firm was launched in response to incursions by drones from the Gulf monarchy into northwest Yemen.
A 2022 truce in Yemen’s civil war, which Saudi Arabia entered more than a decade ago on the side of the internationally recognised government, appeared to collapse last month.
On Sunday, two military sources with the internationally recognized, Aden-based government said the Houthis attacked the city of Mokha on Yemen’s Red Sea coast with missiles and drones.
Residents in the government-controlled city confirmed to AFP they heard blasts in the area with one saying they heard “six consecutive explosions” in the port.
One of the two government military sources said air defenses had engaged the Houthi attacks.
In July, the Houthis announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia, hitting Saudi tankers in the Red Sea.
The Houthis control vast swathes of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and areas on the border with Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea provinces.
The Yemeni threat to shipping and Saudi oil facilities comes in parallel with Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has become the central flashpoint between Tehran and Washington amid efforts to end the Middle East war begun by the U.S. and Israel in February.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said civil response teams had brought under control a fire at Jazan refinery without giving the cause of the blaze.
The facility was also targeted by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in July.
“Saudi Aramco’s industrial security firefighting teams extinguished a fire that broke out at dawn today, Sunday, at one of the facilities belonging to the Saudi Aramco refinery in Jazan, without any injuries,” the ministry said.
