Saudi Arabia-led coalition warplanes have beaten Yemeni rebel military bases in retaliation for a weekend attack on the heart of the kingdom’s economy.
The raids on the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, targeted military camps, as well as rebel Houthi facilities near the city’s airport and its suburbs, residents and Al-Masirah-led rebel television said. A separate strike hit a rebel target in Hodeidah Harbor Province.
Houthis supported by Iran attacked a Saudi Aramco oil refinery in Riyadh on Friday with six drones loaded with bombs. The attack caused a fire that was later controlled without any impact on oil supplies or derivatives, state media said. No casualties were reported.
Saudi Arabia says the missiles in the Aramco Attacks were made in Iran
The escalation is likely to hamper US efforts to end the seven-year war in Yemen, which has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with famine and widespread disease. The conflict is also complicated by US President Joe Biden’s confrontation with Iran over how to revive a 2015 agreement aimed at limiting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
The Saudi-led coalition joined the conflict in neighboring Yemen in 2015 to try to re-establish its internationally recognized government.
Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia rarely lose their lives or cause significant damage, but their frequency has increased in recent months, creating unrest in the Gulf, a key region for global oil production and transit. Several attacks on the Saudi capital, Riyadh, have been intercepted, Saudi authorities said.
(It does not add victims of the rebel attack in the third paragraph)