Yemen’s Houthis said they carried out a drone attack on the Aramco refinery in Jizan, southwestern Saudi Arabia. The announcement came amid tensions that have intensified in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since the beginning of July.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement posted on X that the action hit its target. Saree said the attack was carried out in response to violations of the airspace over the northwestern Yemeni provinces of Saada and Hajjah by Saudi Arabia-operated drones.
Fire at a facility in Jizan
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy said several hours before the Houthi announcement that a fire had broken out at one of the facilities linked to the Aramco refinery in Jizan. The ministry said the fire had been brought under control and that no one was injured.
The Houthis announced their second attack on Aramco facilities in about two weeks. The group had announced on July 25 that it targeted Aramco facilities in Jizan and Yanbu using ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones.
The Houthis had claimed that they directly hit their targets in the previous actions. The Saudi authorities did not issue a prompt statement on those claims at the time.
Mutual statements along the Red Sea route
While the Houthis announced that they were expanding their attacks on vessels linked to Saudi Arabia, Riyadh also said that one of its vessels had come under attack.
Saudi Arabia also said it had carried out airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen’s Hudaydah province, which it said were being used to threaten maritime transport.
Riyadh recently announced that it had established a defensive maritime coalition to protect the security of maritime transport in the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The coalition was said to include the United States, Yemen, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Sudan, Morocco, the Maldives, Bangladesh and New Zealand.
