SANAA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) — Yemen’s Houthi group said Saturday it launched ballistic missiles and drones at an Aramco facility in the Saudi capital Riyadh, in retaliation for what it described as intensified Saudi air and missile strikes on Yemen.
In a statement broadcast by the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea claimed the attack achieved its objective, with “direct hits” setting fire to the targeted sites.
He said the attack was in response to what the Houthis described as Saudi airstrikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa and other Houthi-controlled areas earlier in the day.
In a separate statement on Saturday, Sarea said 60 air and missile strikes had hit Yemen over the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of such attacks since the latest escalation began to 1,410.
Sarea said on social media platform X that the 60 strikes hit areas in Sanaa, Saada, Taiz, Hajjah and Marib provinces, claiming that civilian sites were among the targets.
The statement came after a series of powerful explosions shook Sanaa on Saturday afternoon. Residents told Xinhua that more than seven blasts were heard within a short period, with the sound of warplanes overhead and smoke rising from the mountainous areas of Al-Nahdayn and Jabal Attan, key Houthi-held military sites.
Meanwhile, Houthi and government forces kept trading attacks on Saturday to seek control of key mountainous positions in southwestern Taiz province, a Yemeni government military official told Xinhua.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several people on both sides had been killed or wounded amid exchanges of drone attacks and heavy airstrikes, without providing a precise toll.
Against that backdrop, government forces, largely backed by Saudi Arabia, announced a new wave of military operations against Houthi positions across war-ravaged Yemen.
Majid al-Nuzaili, spokesperson for the government forces, said in a statement on X on Saturday that the military had carried out 257 strikes against Houthi positions, troop movements and military assets, using warplanes, drones, artillery, missiles and multiple-launch rocket systems.
He claimed that at least 700 Houthi fighters were killed or wounded and 170 military vehicles and other pieces of equipment were destroyed.
Tensions between Houthis and Saudi Arabia intensified after the group announced a ban on Saudi-linked vessels entering Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports on July 20, followed by an escalation in cross-border missile and drone attacks and airstrikes.
The confrontation widened further in September amid the fighting between Houthis and the Yemeni government forces, largely backed by Saudi Arabia. The Houthis captured the Red Sea port city of Mocha on Sept. 10 and the strategically located Mayyun Island a day later.
Yemen’s conflict began in late 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government. ■