{"id":283457,"date":"2026-09-08T11:37:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/283457\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T11:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T11:37:21","slug":"houthi-attacks-on-saudi-arabia-set-fires-and-wound-73-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/283457\/","title":{"rendered":"Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia set fires and wound 73 people"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAIRO (AP) \u2014 The Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen<\/a> launched a wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, wounding more than 70 people and igniting fires at oil facilities and utilities in the kingdom, authorities said.<\/p>\n

The attack was a major escalation in renewed fighting between an important U.S. ally and the Iranian proxy group. It also threatened to further destabilize a region rocked by nearly three years of wars and deliver a new blow to the global economy.<\/p>\n

Weeks of clashes have added pressure to limited global oil supplies as the Houthis target a shipping route Saudi Arabia has used to transport oil to world markets while the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> is throttled due to the U.S.-Iran war. Tuesday\u2019s attacks hit Saudi oil facilities connected to the alternative route, the Bab el-Mandeb<\/a>, a strategic waterway off the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf Aden.<\/p>\n

Fears mount of renewed war in Yemen<\/p>\n

The conflict between Saudi Arabia, one of the U.S.\u2019s closest Mideast allies, and the Houthis, a Shiite militant group armed and trained by Iran, goes back years.<\/p>\n

The new fighting has threatened to reignite the country\u2019s civil war, which began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year to try to restore the government to power.<\/p>\n

Fighting has greatly died down since a truce was reached four years ago.<\/p>\n

The civil war has killed at least 150,000 people, according to U.N. estimates, and at times pushed the country to the brink of famine.<\/p>\n

The Houthis are part of a network of Iranian-backed proxies across the region that have stepped up attacks on regional shipping and Israel and neighboring countries in recent years in response to Israel\u2019s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and more recently during the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.<\/p>\n

The Houthis often act in coordination with Iran but also have carried out operations independently to promote their own interests.<\/p>\n

Houthi attacks hit oil facilities in southern Saudi Arabia<\/p>\n

The attacks early Tuesday hit \u201ccivilian and economic facilities\u201d in the Saudi cities of Abha, Jazan, Najran and Khamis Mushait, said Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.<\/p>\n

Al-Malki said the attacks wounded 73 people, including women and children. He didn\u2019t provide further details.<\/p>\n

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The attacks ignited fires at several oil facilities and utilities in Saudi Arabia\u2019s southern region, the kingdom\u2019s Energy Ministry said. Operations at the oil facilities and utilities were temporarily suspended, it said. <\/p>\n

The southern region houses major oil facilities, including a 400,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery in Jazan, which is one of Saudi Arabia\u2019s largest. The Houthis previously attacked the Abha airport.<\/p>\n

The ministry said firefighters were battling the fires Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Al-Malki called the attacks a \u201cserious escalation\u201d and vowed retaliation.<\/p>\n

Houthis claim responsibility<\/p>\n

In a prerecorded video statement, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the rebels\u2019 military spokesman, said they fired dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at oil and economic facilities, as well as an air base in southern Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

He said they targeted Jazan City for Primary and Downstream Industries, a major industrial and logistics hub on Saudi Arabia\u2019s southwestern Red Sea coast. The rebels also aimed at Aramco facilities in Najran and Abha, as well as King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait.<\/p>\n

Saree blamed Saudi Arabia for the escalation, warning that \u201cevery aggression against our country and people will be met with a firm response.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attacks came hours after the rebels blamed Saudi Arabia for an airstrike that hit a prison<\/a> in Yemen\u2019s northern province of Jawf. At least seven people, including a child, were killed and seven others were wounded.<\/p>\n

Over 18,000 people have been displaced in Yemen<\/p>\n

The latest escalation stemmed from a Houthi attempt in July to fly a plane from Tehran to Yemen\u2019s capital, Sanaa, challenging a decade-long air and naval blockade by the Saudi-led coalition. A coalition airstrike struck the runway of the Sanaa airport, preventing the landing of the flight.<\/p>\n

The Houthis responded with missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, and attacks on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, ending a 2022 truce that had largely halted fighting.<\/p>\n

The rebels also launched attacks on Saudi-allied forces inside Yemen, prompting government forces to respond with attacks on the Houthis across Yemen\u2019s west coast and elsewhere in the country.<\/p>\n

Government forces have reclaimed territory from the Houthis in the provinces of Hodeida and Taiz, and attacked the rebels in the northern province of Jawf as well as the central provinces of Marib and Bayda.<\/p>\n

The flare-up has displaced about 18,500 people in Taiz and Hodeida in southwestern Yemen, further pressuring communities in southern Taiz and the West Coast, according to the International Organization for Migration.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies are arriving with nothing: no shelter, no food, no way to know if it\u2019s safe to go back,\u201d said Abdusattor Esoev, IOM Yemen\u2019s Chief of Mission. \u201cMany of these are people who have already been displaced once, twice, even four times before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAIRO (AP) \u2014 The Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen launched a wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[719,2371,325,328,2087,777,197,379,34,196,2222,50,200,82,17243,706],"class_list":["post-283457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","tag-ap-top-news","tag-business","tag-drone-warfare","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-houthis","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-oil-and-gas-industry","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-world-news","tag-yahya-saree","tag-yemen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117235223700612659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}