Houthis Say They Attacked Saudi Oil Pumping Stations and Riyadh Airport as Coalition Strikes Missile Sites in Yemen

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday they had attacked Saudi Arabia’s East-West crude oil pumping stations and Riyadh airport, according to Reuters. The Saudi-led coalition said earlier it had destroyed two ballistic missile launchers in Sanaa, including one used to fire a missile toward Riyadh that the coalition said it had intercepted. There was no immediate Saudi confirmation of the Houthi claims.

The Houthis have been firing ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi airports, ports and oil installations in recent weeks. The group also said it had struck Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, which resumed operations at two terminals on Sunday after an attack claimed by the group earlier this month killed 13 people. Reuters described that attack as the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade.

Strikes inside Yemen

The Saudi coalition said on Monday it had also carried out an operation against Houthi targets in Yemen. It said the operation destroyed five tunnels used to store ballistic missiles, four ballistic missile launchers and a missile storage facility. It also targeted Houthi supply lines, fighters and military equipment along front lines inside Yemen. Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki pledged continued “deterrent operational measures” to protect civilians.

The Houthis also said on Saturday they had targeted the East-West pipeline, crude oil pumping stations, an Aramco facility in Yanbu and the Rabigh refinery. There was no Saudi confirmation of those claims. Saudi Arabia temporarily shut down the 1,200-kilometer East-West pipeline in September as a precaution after a drone attack that Riyadh and Baghdad said originated in Iraq. The pipeline has served as a route for Middle East oil exports while the Strait of Hormuz has been largely shut by the war.

Talks planned in Tehran

Top officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are set to meet Iranian officials in Tehran on Monday to discuss regional coordination, according to two people with knowledge of the matter cited by Reuters. The planned talks would be the first high-level contact between Iran and all three countries since Saudi Arabia came under escalating attacks from the Houthis.

Saudi Arabia has intensified its strikes on the Houthis since the group captured areas along Yemen’s Red Sea coast last month and advanced toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Reuters reported that the latest fighting has effectively ended a UN-brokered truce that had largely held since 2022. Saudi Arabia led a coalition into Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to back the internationally recognized government, a year after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa.

Reporting based on coverage by Reuters.