RIYADH (The Thursday Times) — Yemen’s Houthis said on Friday that they had attacked Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport with a drone and fired two ballistic missiles at Saudi forces in Jazan province, hours after Saudi civil defence had issued an all-clear for the area.
The group’s military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said in a statement that the drone had hit its target at the airport and that two more drones had struck a pumping station on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline east of Riyadh. He described the missile strike as aimed at “concentrations” of Saudi forces in the Al-Tuwal area of Jazan, on the border with Yemen.
There was no immediate Saudi confirmation of any of the claims, and none could be independently verified. It was not clear whether the strike the Houthis claimed in Jazan was linked to the alerts Saudi civil defence had issued for the province earlier on Friday.
Inside Yemen, Saree said the group had struck weapons depots at the Ras Abbas camp in Aden with ballistic missiles and drones, and had fired missiles at forces under Saudi command in Lahj and al-Jawf provinces. Those claims also could not be verified. Fighting around Aden has intensified in recent days, with government forces digging in as the Houthis push towards the city.
The pipeline that bypasses Hormuz
Jazan is home to a Saudi Aramco refinery that can process 400,000 barrels of crude a day, and southern Saudi Arabia has come under repeated Houthi missile and drone attacks on military sites and energy infrastructure.
The East-West pipeline has become one of the most important energy links in the region since the war disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia has rerouted about 4 million barrels of crude a day through it to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, about 4% of global supply. The Houthis claimed an attack on another of its pumping stations on Thursday, which Saudi Arabia has not confirmed.
Riyadh’s main airport has been a repeated target. Saudi authorities said 12 people were killed and more than 300 injured in a Houthi attack on it in October, after which it was closed for days before partly reopening.
The latest claims came a day after the UN Security Council renewed sanctions on the Houthis, a resolution Pakistan backed while condemning the group’s attacks on Saudi Arabia as terrorist attacks. Saudi Arabia is also pressing the European Union to list the group as a terrorist organisation.
Read more: Houthis say they hit Saudi East-West pipeline and Yanbu oil site; Pakistan backs UN Yemen sanctions, condemns Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia; Yemen’s government fortifies Aden as Houthis push to its edge.
