Houthis say they attacked Saudi oil pumping stations and Riyadh airport
Sanaa — Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday they had attacked Saudi Arabia's East-West crude oil pumping stations and Riyadh airport, as rising hostilities choke oil supplies and threaten to erupt into a larger conflict, according to Reuters.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said earlier it had destroyed two ballistic missile launchers in the capital, Sanaa, including one used to fire a missile towards Riyadh that the coalition said it had intercepted. There was no immediate Saudi confirmation of the Houthi attacks.
The Houthis also said they 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, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade.
On Saturday, the group had already said it targeted the East-West pipeline, crude oil pumping stations, an Aramco facility in Yanbu and the Rabigh refinery, also without Saudi confirmation. Saudi Arabia temporarily shut down its 1,200-km (746-mile) 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 key route for Middle East oil exports while the Strait of Hormuz has been largely shut by the war.
The Saudi coalition also said on Monday it had carried out a military operation against Houthi targets in Yemen, destroying five tunnels used to store ballistic missiles, four ballistic missile launchers and a missile storage facility, as well as targeting supply lines, fighters and military equipment, according to its spokesperson, Turki al-Maliki.
In parallel, top officials from the Mecca Pact countries Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are set to meet Iranian officials in Tehran on Monday to discuss regional coordination, in the first high-level contact between Iran and the three countries since attacks by the Houthis against Saudi Arabia intensified. The latest fighting has effectively ended a UN-brokered truce that had largely held since 2022.
Photo: Archivo A Lo Claro
Source: Reuters