Houthis claim missile attacks on Saudi forces, energy infrastructure

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Friday they had fired two ​ballistic missiles at what they described as concentrations of Saudi ‌forces in Al Tuwal in Jazan province, hours after Saudi civil defence issued an all-clear for the province.

It was not immediately clear whether the attack ​claimed by the Houthis was related to the alerts ​issued by Saudi civil defence in Jazan earlier on ⁠Friday.

Jazan is home to a Saudi Aramco refinery with ​a capacity of 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Southern ​Saudi Arabia, which borders Yemen, has come under repeated missile and drone attacks by the Houthis on military installations and energy infrastructure, including the Jazan ​refinery.

The group also said in a separate statement that ​it had attacked Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and a pumping station on ‌Saudi ⁠Arabia’s East-West Pipeline.

There was no immediate Saudi confirmation of the Houthi account.

With the conflict in the Middle East disrupting oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, Riyadh has rerouted ​about 4 million ​barrels per day ⁠of crude via the East-West Pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, equivalent to about ​4% of global supply.

Fighting between the Houthis ​and the ⁠coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government has intensified after the Houthis advanced in September towards the Bab El Mandeb Strait, a strategic shipping ⁠chokepoint ​at the southern entrance to the ​Red Sea, across the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz.