Saudi Strikes Yemen Fuel Site; Houthis Fire Missiles at Riyadh — SkimNews
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- Saudi-led coalition struck the Yemen Petroleum Company's al-Sabaha fuel facility near Sanaa on Tuesday night, per coalition spokesperson Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, prompting fuel queues across the capital.
- Houthi forces retaliated with missiles and drones; the coalition intercepted four missiles and two drones near Riyadh, and fires broke out at Saudi oil company Aramco's building in Dhahran, though no casualties were reported.
- The Houthis warned they would target Riyadh's airport, the Aramco refinery, and Aramco's headquarters in Dammam in response to Saudi strikes on territory they control in western Yemen.
- Saudi Arabia's cabinet, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, declared the Iran-backed group would "bear the consequences" of recent attacks, after 13 people were killed by a missile at King Khalid International Airport on Saturday and one more the following day.
- President Trump posted on Truth Social that the Houthis were "behaving very badly... and purposefully trying to drive up Oil Prices" and said he "might" ask Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to intervene.
- The humanitarian toll has surged, with the UN reporting more than 216,000 people displaced across Yemen, at least 54 civilians killed since August — half of them children — and suspected cholera cases tripling from 217 to 647 in just three weeks.
- The IMF chief warned the tit-for-tat attacks "have potentially negative spillovers for everybody, everywhere," as the September escalation saw Houthis seize territory near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a critical chokepoint for global shipping.
Why it matters: Direct strikes on Aramco infrastructure and a key global shipping chokepoint at Bab al-Mandab raise the stakes beyond Yemen's civil war, with the IMF warning of worldwide spillovers. The humanitarian cost is accelerating: 216,000 displaced, suspected cholera cases tripling to 647 in three weeks, and 27 children among 54 civilians killed since August.
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