Yemen’s Houthis said on Saturday that they launched strikes targeting “sensitive sites” in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and oil facilities in the kingdom’s port city of Yanbu, hours after residents reported blasts in the Saudi capital.
The Houthi statement came after firefighters extinguished a blaze on a fuel tank emblazoned with the logo of the Saudi oil giant Aramco at a fuel depot near Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday, according to an AFP journalist. “The first targeted sensitive sites in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the second targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu.
Tracking website FlightRadar24 reported “major problems” at the Riyadh King Khalid International Airport, before normal traffic began to resume.
The disruption on Saturday followed an overnight air raid alert issued by Saudi authorities, the first such warning since fighting in neighbouring Yemen intensified this month. Yemen’s Houthis have staged a lightning offensive, seizing swathes of territory, leaving the internationally-recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, scrambling to respond.
Hours after the early morning alert, residents told AFP that they had heard what sounded like a round of explosions echoing through parts of the capital. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
