Yemen’s Houthi militia said they targeted Riyadh airport and pumping stations along Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, while the Saudi-led coalition said it destroyed two Houthi militia ballistic missile launchers in Sanaa.
Houthi militia spokesman Yahya Saree said on X that the group targeted the airport with a ballistic missile. Saree also said the Houthi militia carried out drone attacks on crude oil pumping stations along the East-West Pipeline.
Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence Directorate earlier announced that its early warning system had issued a danger alert for Riyadh. Major General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said a Houthi militia ballistic missile targeting the capital had been intercepted.
The East-West Pipeline is one of Saudi Arabia’s most important crude oil transportation routes. Operated by state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco, it stretches approximately 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) from the Abqaiq area in eastern Saudi Arabia to Yanbu on the Red Sea coast.
The pipeline transports crude oil from production and processing facilities in the east to refineries and export terminals along the Red Sea, providing an overland alternative to maritime shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Saudi-led coalition has supported Yemen’s internationally recognised government since March 2015. Clashes between government forces and the Houthi militia have intensified in recent months. The group has targeted Saudi Arabia with ballistic missiles and drones, accusing the kingdom of responsibility for attacks against it.
Striking missile launchers
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen launched strikes on the capital, Sanaa, early on Monday, claiming to have destroyed two Houthi militia ballistic missile launchers.
Al-Maliki said one of the launchers had been used in a Houthi militia attack on Riyadh in recent hours. In a post on X, he said the coalition was continuing operations to dismantle the group’s ballistic missile network.
The Yemeni army said on Sunday that its forces had “neutralised” around 218 Houthi militias and field commanders in 753 operations over the previous 24 hours, destroying or damaging 78 military vehicles and weapons.
The army said the operations, part of Operation ‘Dawn of Yemen’, targeted forward command centres, fortifications, firing positions, troop concentrations, reinforcements and supply vehicles. It added that the attacks disrupted Houthi militia reinforcements heading to front lines and supported raids and ground assaults by government forces.
The army did not specify how many of those it said had been “neutralised” were killed or wounded. The Houthi militias did not immediately comment.
Yemen has been engulfed in conflict since the Houthi militias seized Sanaa and several provinces in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene the following year in support of the internationally recognised government.
The Houthis control much of northern and western Yemen, including Sanaa, while the government and allied forces retain Aden and substantial areas of southern and eastern Yemen. Renewed fighting has shifted front lines, particularly along the Red Sea coast, and control of some areas remains contested.
