Houthis claim six strikes on Saudi airports and oil sites

Riyadh — Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi forces claimed six attacks on Saudi airports, oil refineries and a military headquarters on Thursday, a coordinated claim of strikes on the kingdom's economic arteries that has so far drawn no independent corroboration. The announcement, reported by Al Jazeera, landed three days after Saudi and Iranian officials met in Tehran and agreed to settle regional differences through dialogue.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement posted on X that the group fired a ballistic missile at the Ras Tanura oil refinery, hit an Aramco facility in Abqaiq with a missile, targeted Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport with multiple missiles, sent a drone at King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, struck the Rabigh oil refinery with a ballistic missile and hit a Saudi military headquarters in Najran. There was no independent confirmation of any of the claims.

The Saudi-led coalition said its air defences intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles fired towards Riyadh, with coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki saying shrapnel wounded one Saudi citizen in the capital and damaged a house and a vehicle. CNA reported that AFP correspondents heard at least eight explosions as authorities warned by phone alert that the city was "under a hostile aerial threat", with alerts also issued for Kharj and Najran.

The target list reads like a map of the kingdom's balance sheet. Ras Tanura, Abqaiq and Rabigh sit at the heart of Saudi crude processing and exports, while an earlier Houthi strike campaign forced Riyadh's airport to close for two weeks and cancelled flagship events, directly threatening the kingdom's economic diversification plans. Even unconfirmed claims of this scope can move insurance and freight costs for Gulf shipping.

The human cost keeps climbing on both sides of the border. The Houthi health ministry said 12 civilians were killed and three critically injured in a Saudi strike on homes in Al-Barah, in Maqbana district, and said at least 14 people died on Wednesday in Saudi strikes on a petrol station and market. More than 1,600 people have been killed in Yemen and over 275,000 displaced since a years-long truce collapsed over the summer, according to United Nations figures.

The escalation now tests the week's diplomacy. Monday's Tehran meeting, hosted by Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei and attended by Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, ended with agreement to continue four-way discussions, and the Saudi foreign ministry stressed "the importance of opening channels of negotiation to prevent a return to military escalation". The internationally recognised Yemeni government has meanwhile urged the UN Security Council to take "deterrent and punitive measures" over Houthi attacks on Aden's airport. The next test is whether that promised follow-up meeting is scheduled — and whether the Security Council acts before it convenes.