Houthi media reported that Saudi Arabia struck an oil facility near Sanaa on Tuesday, after the Saudi-led coalition ordered civilians to evacuate the site.
An AFP correspondent in Sanaa reported hearing an explosion, while a breaking news alert on the Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV said “Saudi aggression targets the oil company in Al-Sabaha, west of Sanaa”.
The Saudi-led coalition had previously signalled an imminent attack, warning civilians in the surrounding area to get out.
After a series of attacks on Saudi Arabia’s airports and oil facilities, it was the first time the coalition battling the Houthis has issued an evacuation order for Yemen’s Sanaa since their war flared up again in July.
The coalition demanded “that civilians evacuate the site of the Yemen Petroleum Company, the al-Sabaha Central Station in Sanaa… for their own safety”, said spokesman Turki al-Maliki on X, referring to a site on the western outskirts of the capital.
The Houthis issued a swift warning that a strike would be met with a “tough and painful response”, telling employees to evacuate Saudi oil giant Aramco facilities and threatening to hit Riyadh’s international airport, which they struck several times in the past week.
An attack there on Saturday left 13 people dead, rocking the world’s top crude oil exporter and deepening the war in Yemen, where it backs the internationally recognised government.
The kingdom was still weathering fresh attacks on Tuesday, with the coalition saying its forces intercepted three drones north of Riyadh.
Many countries have since issued travel warnings to their citizens in Saudi Arabia, most recently France, which told its citizens to avoid the airports in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam on Tuesday.
The Saudi coalition has supported Yemen’s government militarily since 2015, in a long-running civil war against the Houthis that has created a deeply entrenched humanitarian crisis in the impoverished country.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
