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Houthi strikes on Aramco
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said Saturday they fired missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia in response to Saudi airstrikes on Hodeida, and Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the attack targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu and Jizan.
“Massive fires in France and Spain force more than 250,000 people to evacuate”
The Houthi military spokesman said in a prerecorded statement that the attack targeted facilities in the Red Sea cities of Yanbu and Jizan that belong to Aramco, and Saudi civil defense said alerts sounded multiple times early Saturday in both cities.
In response to the Houthi strikes, the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said early Saturday it struck “legitimate military targets” in Hodeida province that “were linked to threats to commercial vessels in the Red Sea.”
Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry, said the strikes late Friday hit the city’s port and the state-run telecommunications corporation, injuring two people.
The rising Red Sea tension also threatened global shipping because the rebels have said they would close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping, a chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
Retaliation language and diplomacy
In a social-media framing of retaliation, Saree said the Houthis executed two military operations “in response to this blatant and criminal aggression” from Saudi Arabia, with one targeting Aramco-affiliated facilities in Jizan and the other targeting Aramco-affiliated facilities in Yanbu.
The Hill also quoted Saree saying, “Both operations successfully achieved their objectives thanks to Allah Almighty, with accurate and direct strikes,” as the attacks were described as part of a wider escalation tied to critical shipping routes.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi called for “diplomacy and dialogue” to solve the Yemen conflict without “military confrontations,” in an interview published Saturday in the state-run Iran newspaper.
NBC News reported that there was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia and that the Kingdom’s civil defense said alerts sounded multiple times early Saturday in Yanbu and Jizan.
NBC News also said the U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment and, unlike the previous 13 nights, did not announce new strikes.
Shipping stakes and regional risk
The conflict’s next phase, as described by the sources, centers on shipping chokepoints and the risk of further disruption, with the Houthis saying they would close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping.
Hays Post said around 12% of the world’s trade, including a quarter of its container traffic, passes through the narrows, and it added that the Houthis targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea this week.
The BBC described the same escalation as Saudi Arabia and the Houthis trading fire, with the Houthis’ Ansarollah media on Telegram saying a “Yemeni missile strike” caused fires in Jizan and Saudi authorities issuing emergency alerts for the province.
The BBC also tied the wider regional context to the U.S.-Iran confrontation, noting that there were no overnight reports of air strikes in the wider region by the US or Iran for the first time in two weeks.
In parallel, the Guardian reported that Iran’s Hossein Kermanpour posted on X that “Iran had a peaceful night,” while the Houthis’ naval blockade of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea was described as threatening to upend global energy markets.
