Houthis claim strikes on Saudi pipeline and Aramco sites; Riyadh says missiles and drones shot down

Yemen's Houthi movement said on Thursday it had launched drone and missile attacks on oil and military sites across Saudi Arabia, as fighting between the group and the Saudi-led coalition intensified.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group struck a pumping station on the East-West Pipeline, targeted the Yanbu oil facility on the Red Sea coast and Saudi Aramco's headquarters in Riyadh, and fired at a military cargo plane at Sharurah airport and at the Khamis Mushait airbase, Al Jazeera reported. The claims could not be independently confirmed. Saree also rejected as false a Saudi statement that the group had targeted the Mecca region.

Saudi interceptions

Coalition spokesperson Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki said on Thursday that air defences intercepted suspected Houthi drones over the Riyadh region and the Eastern Province, according to the Saudi Press Agency, as cited by Al Jazeera. A day earlier, Saudi forces said they destroyed three cruise missiles fired towards the Riyadh region and two drones over the Makkah and southern regions, Asharq Al-Awsat reported.

The attacks matter for oil markets because Riyadh has been rerouting about four million barrels of crude a day through the East-West Pipeline to Yanbu, avoiding the Strait of Hormuz. That is roughly 4 per cent of global supply, Al Jazeera reported.

Ground offensive and diplomacy

In Yemen, government forces said they had expanded an offensive against the Houthis across six fronts, including Marib, Al-Jawf and Taiz, and claimed heavy Houthi losses, figures that have not been independently verified, Asharq Al-Awsat reported. The UN humanitarian office says more than 333,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since early August, Al Jazeera reported.

British Middle East minister Stephen Doughty called the Houthi attacks on Yemen and Saudi Arabia "appalling" and said strikes on airports and civilian areas were unacceptable. He said Britain had sent refuelling aircraft, fighter jets and military advisers to support Saudi defensive operations, Asharq Al-Awsat reported. Reports did not carry a Houthi response to the British remarks.

Why it matters for India

Saudi Arabia is one of India's largest crude suppliers and home to a large Indian community. Attacks on the pipeline that carries Saudi oil to the Red Sea, at a time when Hormuz traffic is disrupted, raise the risk to supplies and shipping routes that Indian refiners depend on.