Houthi strikes hit southern Saudi cities, injuring more than 70 and igniting oil facilities

Khamis Mushait, Saudi Arabia. Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi movement launched drone and missile attacks on four cities in southern Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, injuring 73 people and setting oil installations ablaze, Saudi authorities said.

The Houthis said the operation targeted sites deep inside Saudi territory, marking a significant escalation in the six-month-old regional conflict.

Targets and casualties

The group said it struck a Saudi airbase in Khamis Mushait and facilities linked to Saudi Arabia’s state oil company in Abha, Najran, near the Yemeni border, and Jazan, a major Red Sea port.

Saudi authorities reported fires at the targeted locations and said the injured included women and children. Images independently confirming the aftermath in the Saudi cities were not immediately available.

The Houthis released images showing an explosion involving what they said were Saudi trucks struck in another border area.

Regional tensions and oil prices

The attacks followed a period of relative calm in August, after which fighting in the Gulf resumed, including exchanges of fire between Iran and the United States.

Brent crude rose by more than 2% on Tuesday to above $99 a barrel, its highest level since July. Further Houthi attacks in southwestern Saudi Arabia could disrupt energy supplies in the Middle East beyond the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

Statements from both sides

Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen for more than a decade. Although the conflict had eased in recent years, a ceasefire has broken down and the Houthis have threatened shipping near the entrance to the Red Sea.

“The coalition will take all necessary operational measures to deter this terrorist militia and resolutely confronts its hostile approach,” Saudi-led coalition spokesperson Colonel Turki al-Malki said in a statement on X.

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said Riyadh had escalated the conflict through air strikes on Yemen and that the group would respond.

The conflict has become a contest between the United States and Iran, with both sides seeking to use economic pressure from competing blockades to force concessions.