Houthis say missile strike hit Saudi Ras Tanura refinery and military targets
The Houthi movement claimed to have struck Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura oil refinery and several military sites with missiles and drones, while Saudi officials have not confirmed the attacks.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said on Tuesday that a ballistic missile hit the Ras Tanura oil refinery, the kingdom's largest processing plant, causing a fire at the complex that includes a shipping terminal on the Gulf. The group also claimed to have struck the Saudi Ministry of Defence with a missile and Abha International Airport with a drone, and to have attacked two military transport aircraft at Najran Airport and an airbase in Khamis Mushait.
"The strike on the Ras Tanura refinery caused a fire at the complex," Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said.
Saudi authorities did not confirm any of the incidents. Bloomberg News cited a source who said Saudi officials had contained a fire near the refinery's terminal. The refinery, which can process about 550,000 barrels of oil per day, was previously shut for a period earlier this year as a precaution.
The Houthis also said they repelled an advance by forces they described as Saudi-backed near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a key Red Sea shipping lane. Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces had earlier pushed the Houthis out of coastal areas seized in September.
In Riyadh, civil defence briefly issued an air-raid alert, and the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched toward the capital. Separate reports from Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV claimed Saudi strikes on the Yemeni city of Mocha, though Saudi officials did not confirm this.
The fighting continues to undermine a 2022 UN-brokered truce between the coalition and the Houthis, who control Yemen's capital, Sanaa. Recent diplomatic talks in Tehran involved Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan meeting Iranian officials to discuss regional tensions.