Houthis claim missile, drone attack on Saudi Aramco in Riyadh

The Houthi group said on Saturday that it targeted Saudi oil company Aramco in Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones in response to attacks on the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

The operation “successfully achieved its objective,” causing fires at the targeted sites, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised statement.

Saree added that Sanaa and other provinces had been subjected to 60 airstrikes over the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of strikes to 1,420. He attributed the attacks to Saudi Arabia.

The spokesman warned that the group would respond to “blockade with blockade, and escalation with escalation.”

Meanwhile, Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s government, said in remarks carried by Saudi media, including Asharq Al-Awsat, that Houthi claims of targeting Riyadh on Saturday are “misleading.”

He added that the Houthis were trying to “divert attention from the scale of its losses and growing public anger over the militias’ conduct and their ties to foreign agendas that have brought chaos and destruction to Yemen.”

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition supporting Yemen's internationally recognized government against Houthi forces, which have controlled Sanaa and several other governorates since September 2014.

In July this year, the Houthis announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, saying the move was in response to a Saudi naval and air siege on areas under its control in Yemen. The group has since targeted energy infrastructure in the kingdom.