Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis said on Thursday that they had struck Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry in Riyadh and Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Yanbu, a Red Sea port, as Saudi authorities confirmed that four people were killed in two separate attacks on the kingdom a day earlier.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced the strikes in a televised speech, describing four operations carried out with ballistic missiles and drones over the previous 48 hours. Alongside the Defense Ministry and Yanbu, he claimed attacks on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam and Abha International Airport. Saudi authorities have not confirmed that the Defense Ministry or the Yanbu facilities were hit, and neither claim has been independently verified. The Saudi-led coalition said only that it had intercepted drones over Riyadh and Medina.
Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation said the death toll from Wednesday evening's attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, in the oil-rich Eastern Province, had risen to two: a Saudi citizen and an Indian national. Eight others were wounded, one Saudi and seven foreign nationals from India, Yemen, Bangladesh and Nepal, with injuries ranging from minor to serious. The authority did not identify the weapon used or say who was responsible. It reported material damage to the airport but said operations had resumed and air traffic had returned to normal.
Earlier on Wednesday, Saudi air defenses intercepted a drone heading for a processing facility at Aramco's Shaybah oil field. The Energy Ministry said falling debris set fire to a contractor's vehicle outside the facility's perimeter, killing two foreign workers, a Filipino and a Nepali, and injuring a Pakistani and an Indian. The ministry said the field's operations were not affected.
Aramco has told staff to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran and work remotely, Reuters reported, citing six people with knowledge of the matter. The Houthis struck the building earlier this month, causing extensive damage.
The State Department on Wednesday ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia. Spokesman Tommy Pigott said the Houthis had "increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions." U.S. officials told Reuters that missions in other Gulf states would also order family members to leave.
The escalation has shattered the relative calm that largely held after a 2022 UN-brokered truce, which had halted most cross-border attacks between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia.
Markets reacted sharply. Saudi Arabia's benchmark index fell 2.5% on Thursday, according to LSEG data. Brent crude futures rose $3.06, or 2.81%, to $111.88 a barrel at 1104 GMT, after touching $112.55 earlier in the session, the highest level since May 18.
In his speech, Saree said Saudi strikes on Yemen had killed and wounded 562 people since mid-July, when the Houthis imposed a naval blockade on the kingdom. He also said the Houthis were rescuing a boat carrying 14 Indians that had come under attack off Jabal Zuqar, an island near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that the group seized in September, and he blamed Saudi Arabia for the attack. Saudi Arabia has not commented on the claim.
Saudi Arabia stopped issuing public missile alerts after September 29, days before a series of four Houthi strikes on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport that killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 300. Public alerts resumed on October 12.
