RIYADH – Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed fresh attacks on Riyadh airport and pumping stations serving Saudi Arabia’s strategic East–West oil pipeline, a major route for transporting crude without passing through Hormuz.
Saudi authorities have yet to respond to the claims, leaving the reported strikes, their impact and any disruption to operations unconfirmed. The claims come amid an escalation in Houthi attacks on Saudi airports, ports and oil installations over the past month. The pipeline and its pumping stations have also been targeted previously.
Operated by Saudi Aramco, the 1,200-kilometre pipeline carries oil from the kingdom’s eastern region across the Arabian Peninsula to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Its route gives Saudi Arabia an important alternative to shipping crude through the Strait of Hormuz.
The latest claims followed an announcement by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthis that it had struck two ballistic missile launch sites in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
According to the coalition, one of those sites had been used to fire a missile towards Riyadh. Saudi air defences intercepted and destroyed the projectile in mid-air, the coalition said.
The competing statements underscore the widening threat to Saudi transport and energy infrastructure, although no Saudi confirmation of the latest claimed attacks was available in the supplied account.
