Yemen’s Houthis said on Tuesday that they had carried out attacks targeting Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh’s airport and financial district, hours after blasts were heard in the Saudi capital and residents received a mobile-phone alert urging them to shelter from an aerial threat.
According to reports from the scene, journalists heard explosions in the early hours of the morning. The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said it had shot down a ballistic missile launched at the city by the group.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the attacks had also targeted pumping stations along the East-West pipeline in Riyadh, an Aramco facility in the eastern Abqaiq region, as well as troops in Yemen.
The incident came two days after the Houthis struck a skyscraper belonging to oil giant Aramco in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District. Saudi authorities had earlier said the building was hit by falling shrapnel after what they described as an attempted attack, and images released by the official Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday showed officials inspecting the tower, with visible damage to several of its floors.
The two sides gave conflicting accounts of an attack on the East-West oil pipeline. Saudi authorities said on Monday that the pipeline had been attacked in the Medina region, but Saree rejected that account, calling it a blatant lie and insisting the attack had targeted the pipeline in Riyadh, not in Medina.
The pipeline route has become vital for Saudi oil exports since Iran began hampering transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the energy-rich Gulf, in response to US-Israeli strikes.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, has faced near-daily Houthi strikes since early October, according to reports, including attacks that closed Riyadh airport for two weeks. A truce in Yemen’s long-running war between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government unravelled in July.
Daily life in the capital has been disrupted by the escalation. Riyadh’s schoolchildren, after two days back in the classroom, returned to online learning on Tuesday as part of what officials described as ongoing precautionary measures.
The attacks have also cast a shadow over Saudi efforts to overhaul its oil-reliant economy by attracting foreign investment and encouraging tourism and leisure spending. The King Abdullah Financial District, with its towering glass skyscrapers, high-end shops and green spaces, is one of the most visible symbols of that drive.
In response to the latest claims, the coalition has been launching airstrikes against Houthi positions inside Yemen. On Tuesday, the Houthis’ news agency said Saudi warplanes carried out a series of strikes on the capital Sanaa and its outskirts, targeting a gas facility and a building belonging to the Yemeni state oil company. One person was killed and three were wounded in the attack on the gas facility, the Houthi health ministry said in a statement.
The coalition began fighting the Houthis in March 2015, months after the group seized Sanaa and forced out the government. Neither side has shown any sign of returning to the truce that collapsed in July.
