Houthis claim ballistic missile and drone attack on Aramco facility in Riyadh

On Saturday, Yemen's Houthi movement announced it had struck an oil facility operated by Saudi Aramco in Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones. The claim came through al-Masirah TV, the group's media outlet, with military spokesperson Yahya Sarea describing the strike as successful, saying the weapons achieved "direct hits" and ignited fires at the target site.

The attack, Sarea explained, was retaliation for what the Houthis characterized as a surge in Saudi airstrikes and missile fire directed at Yemen. On the same day the strike was announced, the group said Saudi forces had conducted 60 air and missile strikes across Yemeni territory in the previous 24 hours alone. Those strikes, according to Sarea's statement posted on social media, had hit five provinces—Sanaa, Saada, Taiz, Hajjah, and Marib—and included civilian infrastructure among the targets. Since the current phase of escalation began, Sarea claimed, the total number of such Saudi strikes had reached 1,410.

The intensity of Saturday's activity was visible and audible in Sanaa itself. Residents reported more than seven powerful explosions within a short window, accompanied by the sound of aircraft overhead and smoke rising from Al-Nahdayn and Jabal Attan, both key military positions held by the Houthis in the mountainous terrain surrounding the capital. The blasts underscored the scale of the day's operations.

On the ground in southwestern Taiz province, fighting between Houthi forces and government troops—backed largely by Saudi Arabia—continued over control of strategic mountain positions. A military official representing the government, speaking anonymously, confirmed that both sides had suffered casualties in exchanges of drone strikes and heavy bombardment, though he did not provide specific numbers.

The Saudi-backed government forces responded with their own accounting of military action. Majid al-Nuzaili, a spokesperson for those forces, announced that in a single wave of operations, government and coalition warplanes, drones, artillery, and rocket systems had carried out 257 strikes against Houthi positions, troop concentrations, and military equipment. Al-Nuzaili claimed the strikes had killed or wounded at least 700 Houthi fighters and destroyed 170 military vehicles and other assets.

This latest escalation sits within a broader pattern of intensifying confrontation. The Houthis announced in July a ban on vessels linked to Saudi Arabia from entering Red Sea ports under their control, a move that triggered a cycle of cross-border missile and drone attacks. In September, the conflict widened further when Houthi forces captured the Red Sea port city of Mocha on September 10, followed by the seizure of Mayyun Island a day later—both strategically significant positions.

The underlying conflict traces back to late 2014, when the Houthis took control of Sanaa and much of northern Yemen. Saudi Arabia, along with a coalition of allied nations, intervened militarily beginning in March 2015 to support the internationally recognized Yemeni government. More than a decade later, the war continues, with Saturday's strikes representing another chapter in an unresolved struggle for control of Yemen's territory and resources.