Houthis say targeted ‘sensitive sites’ in Riyadh, Aramco facilities in Yanbu

Smoke rising from a fuel storage depot near King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on Sept 19.

SANAA – Yemen’s Houthis said on Sept 19 that they launched strikes targeting “sensitive sites” in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and oil facilities in the kingdom’s port city of Yanbu, hours after residents reported blasts in the Saudi capital.

“In response to the Saudi enemy’s criminal attempts to target the capital Sana’a... the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two successful military operations using a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said, in a statement on Telegram.

“The first targeted sensitive sites in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the second targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu.”

The Houthi statement came after firefighters extinguished a blaze on a fuel tank emblazoned with the logo of the Saudi oil giant Aramco at a fuel depot near Riyadh’s international airport on Sept 19, according to an AFP journalist.

Tracking website FlightRadar24 reported “major problems” at the Riyadh King Khalid International Airport, before normal traffic began to resume.

Yemen’s Houthis have staged a lightning offensive, seizing swathes of territory, leaving the internationally-recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, scrambling to respond.

The disruption on Sept 19 followed an overnight air raid alert issued by Saudi authorities, the first such warning since fighting in neighbouring Yemen intensified this month.

Hours after the early morning alert, residents told AFP that they had heard what sounded like a round of explosions echoing through parts of the capital. AFP