DUBAI’s Iran-affiliated Houthi movement (Reuters) said Monday it had fired 17 drones and two ballistic missiles at targets in Saudi Arabia, including Saudi Aramco’s facilities in Jubail and Jeddah.
There was no immediate Saudi confirmation. Saudi Aramco, the state oil company, said when Reuters reached out it would respond as soon as possible.
Houthi’s military spokesman Yahya Sarea said on Twitter that the group’s barrage consisted of 10 Samad-3 drones fired at refineries in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and Jubail in the eastern province.
The Aramco refinery in Jeddah was decommissioned in 2017, but has a plant for the distribution of petroleum products that the Houthis were previously targeted.
Sarea said on Monday that the move also targeted military sites in the southern Saudi cities of Khamis Mushait and Jazan.
The Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen’s 2015 war against the Houthis said late on Sunday that it had intercepted and destroyed six armed Houthi drones.
The coalition went to war after the Houthis expelled the internationally recognized government from the capital, Sana’a.
The movement, which controls most of North Yemen, has continued cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia and a ground offensive in Yemen’s Marib region at a time when the United States and United Nations are pushing for a ceasefire. -fire agreement.
Riyadh and the Yemeni government have welcomed a ceasefire, but the Houthis want the complete lifting of a sea and air blockade.
The conflict, seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has killed tens of thousands and pushed the nation of the Arabian Peninsula to the brink of famine.
Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli and Ghaida Ghantous; written by Raya Jalabi; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Toby Chopra