Houthi attacks kill 11 in Yemen, strike Saudi oil refinery

On Sunday, Yemen's Houthi rebels launched coordinated strikes across the Red Sea region, killing at least eleven people in the port city of Mokha and striking a major Saudi oil refinery. The attacks marked an escalation in a conflict that had held to an uneasy ceasefire for years, signaling the collapse of a fragile truce between Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-backed government forces that control Yemen's internationally recognized state institutions.

In Mokha, one of Yemen's primary ports and a crucial hub for shipping traffic that bypasses Houthi-controlled Hodeida, the strikes were devastating. Medical personnel at the scene reported that three civilians and eight military personnel were killed in the barrages. Government military sources confirmed the casualty count and added that more than forty personnel were wounded in the assault. The Houthis had launched multiple waves of missiles and drones at the city, which sits on the Red Sea coast and has been renovated in recent years to handle the commercial traffic that avoids ports held by Houthi forces.

Hours earlier, the same rebel group had targeted the Jazan refinery, a major facility operated by Saudi Aramco on Saudi Arabia's southwestern Red Sea coast. The plant processes four hundred thousand barrels of crude oil daily. Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry reported that a fire had broken out at the site but was quickly extinguished, and that no injuries had occurred. The ministry said authorities were completing procedures to address the incident.

Yahya Saree, the Houthis' military spokesman, claimed responsibility for both operations. He said the group had struck what he called "Saudi enemy" troops and equipment in Mokha with missiles and drones. Regarding the refinery attack, Saree framed it as retaliation for drone incursions by Saudi Arabia into northwest Yemen. The Houthis have targeted Aramco facilities before, hitting sites in both Jazan and Yanbu along the Red Sea coast.

The Sunday attacks came as the years-long civil war in Yemen appeared to be entering a new, more volatile phase. A truce that had held between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government had begun to unravel last month as regional tensions between American and Iranian allies intensified. The Houthis, who control large portions of Yemen including the capital Sanaa and areas bordering Saudi Arabia's Red Sea provinces, have announced a maritime blockade of the kingdom. They have struck Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea and targeted Saudi oil infrastructure as part of a broader campaign that runs parallel to Iran's own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The pattern suggests a coordinated pressure campaign against Saudi Arabia's energy sector and shipping interests, with the Houthis now willing to sustain attacks despite the risks of Saudi retaliation.