Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for six coordinated missile and drone operations against Saudi Arabia, including strikes on Riyadh’s international airport and Saudi Aramco oil facilities, in the sharpest escalation yet of the cross-border war between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement posted on Saturday, 7 November, that the group’s forces had carried out six operations using a large number of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones. He said the first operation targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, along with oil storage tanks and an Aramco distillation tower in the Saudi capital, and claimed the strikes had successfully achieved their objectives.
Saree said the second operation targeted Aramco facilities in Khurais, in eastern Saudi Arabia, and the third struck Pumping Station No. 8 in the Dawadmi area, on the East-West pipeline that carries Saudi oil to the Red Sea. The remaining operations targeted a National Guard camp in Najran, in southern Saudi Arabia, and Saudi forces in both Saudi and Yemeni territory, according to the Houthi statement.
No Saudi confirmation of the damage
Saudi Arabia did not immediately confirm the reported attacks on the airport or the Aramco facilities, or the extent of any damage. The Saudi-led coalition did confirm that it had intercepted a missile over Riyadh on Saturday morning, and said on Friday that it had intercepted and destroyed a cruise missile and a drone over the Riyadh region. There was no independent verification that the Houthi missiles and drones had reached their intended targets.
One report, citing witnesses quoted by Reuters, described damage to a building belonging to Aramco in Riyadh’s financial district amid the renewed hostilities. That account has not been confirmed by Saudi authorities or by Aramco, which had not immediately announced any operational interruption connected to the claims, and there was no verified information that oil production, pipelines or exports had been disrupted.
The Houthis presented the operations as retaliation for Saudi strikes in Yemen. Saree claimed Saudi air and missile strikes had killed at least 33 people and injured 39 others in Yemen, and said the Houthis had counted 67 Saudi strikes on Taiz, Lahj, Saada, Al Jawf and Marib in 24 hours, taking the total since the escalation began to 4,264. Those figures come from the Houthis and have not been independently verified.
A war running alongside the Iran conflict
Until Aramco or Saudi civil defence confirms physical damage, the episode is best read as a claim of escalation rather than a confirmed hit on the kingdom’s oil infrastructure. But the scale of the claim — six operations in a single day, aimed at the capital’s airport and the heart of the oil industry — marks a new intensity in a conflict that has already drawn in the region’s biggest powers.
Related coverage: Riyadh Air Defences Down Houthi Cruise Missile in Saturday Attack | Syria and Saudi Arabia Sign Defence Pact as Houthi Attacks Grow
