Houthis threaten Saudi Aramco facilities, airports amid escalating conflict | Houthis News

Yemen’s Houthis have warned all employees and civilians near Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities to evacuate, calling the sites “a legitimate target”.

The warning on Tuesday from the group’s spokesman, Yahya Saree, was prompted by an evacuation order from the Saudi-led coalition urging civilians to evacuate Yemeni Oil Company’s al-Sabah central station in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa.

Shortly after the Saudi-led coalition’s evacuation order, Al Jazeera’s team on the ground reported hearing explosions in Sanaa. Media outlets affiliated with the Houthis said air strikes by the Saudi-backed forces struck an oil facility in the al-Sabah area of the capital.

“We heard the explosion upon Saudi Arabia targeting the Yemeni oil al-Sabah Central Station here in the capital Sanaa,” Al Jazeera correspondent Yousef Mawry said.

Saudi Arabia also conducted two other air strike campaigns on the Ras Isa port targeting Yemeni oil storage tanks and on an oil station in the Houthi-controlled Hodeidah province, according to Mawry.

Following the reported explosions, Saree said Houthi fighters were confronting Saudi-backed forces in Sanaa.

Saree responded to the coalition’s evacuation order, warning that any strikes on Sanaa would meet a “harsh and painful” reprisal on the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

In a statement on X, Saree said the Houthis would target the sites that were ordered to be evacuated if the Saudi-led coalition proceeded with an attack on Sanaa.

Civilians were told to evacuate the Aramco Company headquarters in Dammam, King Khalid International Airport and a refinery affiliated with Aramco in Riyadh.

“The Ansar Allah Houthi group have not yet launched any attacks, but people are expecting there to be retaliations,” Mawry said.

Airport attacks

An attack on King Khalid airport on Saturday left at least 13 people dead and more than 300 injured, rocking the world’s top crude oil exporter. Another person was killed, and 11 were wounded on Sunday after a projectile struck the airport in Riyadh.

Many international airlines have since suspended flights to Saudi ⁠⁠Arabia and ⁠⁠neighbouring countries following the deadly weekend attacks by the Houthis, including Air France-KLM, Air India, Etihad, Lufthansa, Delta, Gulf Air and Qatar Airways.

The kingdom, which backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government, was still weathering new attacks on Tuesday, with the coalition saying its forces intercepted three drones north of Riyadh.

Saree also reiterated the Houthis’ warning to airports in Saudi Arabia following recent attacks on multiple airports and oil facilities across the country since last week in a spillover from the wider regional conflict between the US and Iran.

Saudi Arabia’s cabinet, chaired ⁠by Crown Prince ⁠Mohammed bin Salman, said on Tuesday the Houthis would face “consequences” for their attacks across the kingdom, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

US President ⁠Donald ⁠Trump said on Tuesday that the Houthis were “behaving very badly” and told reporters he “might” ask Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ‌to intervene and support Saudi interests.

“President Erdogan, I think, would ‌do ‌as I ask,” Trump said.

Dawn of Yemen

Saudi Arabia has in recent ⁠⁠weeks launched strikes against the Houthis and is backing a Yemeni government counteroffensive known as the “Dawn of Yemen” after the group seized strategic territory last month.

Yemeni forces loyal to the internationally recognised government said they launched a series of air strikes on Houthi positions and equipment in the country’s southwest on Tuesday.

A total of nine air strikes were conducted in Taiz governorate, including five in Dhubab district and four in al-Masrakh district, the government said.

According to the Taiz Military Axis Media Center, affiliated with the Ministry of Defence, fighting is ongoing between government forces and the Houthis in al-Shaqab, south of Taiz.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedom said on Tuesday that the Houthis had killed at least five civilians, including a five-year-old girl in Taiz during the previous 24 hours and injured 17 others.

The organisation accused the Houthis of shelling residential neighbourhoods, damaging at least seven homes. It also alleged that the group had fired more than 180 projectiles across Taiz during the previous 24 hours.

Houthi offensive

In September, the Houthis carried out a lightning ground offensive on Mocha, pushing back forces loyal to Yemen’s government from the strategic port city. The same month, the group’s forces again swept through and seized territory along the western coast and the Bab al-Mandeb strait, including the strategically located Mayyun Island in the strait.

As the fighting in Yemen continues to rage, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, warned that civilians across the Middle East are bearing the brunt of escalating hostilities and has called for all parties to de-escalate.

“In Yemen, the scale of death, displacement and damage to civilian infrastructure, including in Aden and Sanaa, is mounting at an alarming rate. Across the Middle East, civilian infrastructure has repeatedly been hit and lives have been lost,” Spoljaric said in a statement.

At least 46 civilians have been killed and more than 130 others injured in Yemen since August, many of them children, and more than 200,000 people have been displaced since September, according to the United Nations.