Houthis fire on Saudi Red Sea oil sites
Federico Maccioni, Timour Azhari and Eman Abouhassira
RIYADH, July 25 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants opened fire on Saudi oil facilities at two Red Sea ports on Saturday and Saudi-backed forces bombed the Houthis as the war in the Gulf that has disrupted global supplies spread to a “second front”.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group targeted and successfully hit fields belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu.
In the video shared on social media and verified by Reuters, a large column of smoke is seen rising from the direction of the Aramco refinery in Jizan.
Two Asia-based trade sources said they had been informed of potential damage to fuel and oil storage sites in Jizan. Aramco did not respond to requests for comment on the events.
Greek security sources said that two ballistic missiles targeting oil facilities in Yanbu were destroyed by the US-made Patriot battery operated by the Greek army in Saudi Arabia within the scope of the agreement made with Riyadh.
Yanbu, Saudi Arabia’s main oil port on the Red Sea, where millions of barrels a day are loaded, has become the main exit route for Saudi oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which is blockaded by Iran. Located on the Red Sea, close to the Yemen border, Jizan is the site of a refinery with a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day.
In Yemen, the air force of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government, which has been fighting against the Houthis for more than a decade, carried out air strikes on the Houthis’ missile and drone launch sites and weapons depots in Marib and al-Jawf provinces, Yemeni officials told Reuters.
Previously, the Saudi-led military alliance against the Houthis announced that it had bombed Houthi military positions in the Houthi-controlled Red Sea port of Hodeida on Friday.
Yemeni officials said both sides in the Yemeni civil war are mobilizing their forces along the front.
SAUDI-LEADED COALITION HIT HUDEIDAH
Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab coalition fighting the Houthis for more than a decade since Iran-backed fighters captured Yemen’s capital Sanaa and large swathes of territory in the north and west, including the Red Sea coast.
The Yemeni civil war, in which hundreds of thousands of people died from conflict and famine, has been stopped under a ceasefire since 2022. But that ceasefire broke down this month when the Houthis effectively joined the broader war waged by their Iranian allies after being attacked by the United States and Israel.
The Houthis declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia last week, and Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said all Saudi oil facilities would be targeted if Riyadh increased its intervention in the conflict.
The move threatens to further widen the disruption to global oil supplies from the Iran war and has contributed in recent days to one of the sharpest increases in global oil prices of the war, with Brent crude rising above $100 a barrel for the first time since May.
‘MILITARY PUNISHMENT’
US President Donald Trump on Friday promised “massive military punishment” to Tehran and the Houthis after he said the Houthis shot down two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea on Thursday.
The Saudi-led coalition said it would continue to take necessary measures to protect its ships and Saudi Arabia’s interests and would respond “uncompromisingly” if the Houthis continued hostile actions.
Yemen’s Houthi-run foreign ministry said Friday’s attacks on Hodeida marked the beginning of the “escalation” phase and blamed Saudi Arabia for the resulting developments.
Houthi-linked Al Masirah TV said Saudi attacks hit facilities belonging to the state telecommunications company in the city of Hodeidah. The broadcaster also said Saudi forces targeted Kamaran Island off Yemen’s west coast.
Earlier on Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Al Jaber said in posts on X that the kingdom will continue to support the entry of ships into Hodeidah Port despite Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
The port’s operation was a major subject of international concern during the Yemen war a decade ago; At the time, the Saudi blockade was blamed for exacerbating hunger and deprivation.
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari, Enas Alashray, Ahmed Tolba, Timour Azhari, Lefteris Papadimas and Trixie Yap; Editing by Nia Williams, Rosalba O’Brien, David Gregorio, Cynthia Osterman and Susan Fenton)
