Yemen’s Houthi militants have escalated attacks on Saudi Arabia’s energy facilities in a campaign that is destabilising the world’s largest oil exporter and strengthening the hand of Iran.
The rebel group claimed responsibility for drone and missile attacks on the giant Saudi Aramco Jazan oil facility on Sunday, as well as what a Houthi spokesperson called a “widespread destruction operation” against Saudi forces in the strategic Red Sea port of Al-Makha that reportedly killed at least seven people.
The attacks come after strikes on shipping in the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the Yemeni coast in the past week, threatening another critical maritime trade route that has served as an alternative to the disrupted Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry acknowledged that a fire had broken out at the Jazan refinery on Sunday but claimed that it was quickly extinguished with no injuries reported, while a Houthi spokesperson claimed the strike was in response to Saudi drones “violating Yemeni airspace” and what the rebels characterise as a “blockade” of land sea and air routes into the country.
The Jazan facility had suffered damage in a previous attack, also claimed by the Houthis at the end of July, threatening pipelines running across Saudi Arabia and oil export terminals on the Red Sea coast that have provided overland alternatives to Hormuz.
