Houthi attack sparks fire in Aramco facility

Saudi Arabia confirmed on Wednesday that a Houthi attack on an administrative building of state oil giant Aramco in Dhahran sparked a fire, as fighting escalated between the militia and Saudi-led coalition.

The Houthis had earlier warned civilians to evacuate Saudi oil sites, which the group called "legitimate targets". Yahya Sarea, Houthi military spokesman, said on Wednesday that their forces had conducted "a high-quality military operation targeting Aramco in Dhahran" as well as strikes targeting Riyadh airport and a refinery in the capital.

The Yemeni group has also warned it will target US interests if the United States intervenes in the conflict, as US President Donald Trump said the Houthis were behaving "very badly" and that he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the group.

Houthi political bureau member Mohammed Al Bukhaiti told Agence France-Presse that the purpose of the campaign against Saudi targets was to send a message "that Riyadh can no longer wage aggression against Yemen from a safe position".

A Houthi assault on Riyadh's international airport on Saturday killed 13 people and suspended airport operations, marking the deadliest attack on the Saudi capital since 2015. Since that year, the Saudi-led coalition has militarily backed Yemen's internationally recognized government against the Houthis in a protracted civil war that has triggered a devastating humanitarian crisis.

The US — Saudi Arabia's longstanding security ally — has so far rebuffed Saudi efforts to bring it directly into the war against the Houthis.

The deadly airport attack prompted Trump to state he was weighing joining Saudi strikes. He said the Houthis have ramped up assaults on Saudi infrastructure to push energy prices higher ahead of US midterm elections.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday that the Houthis "are behaving very badly", accusing them of acting "probably at the behest of Iran". The White House reposted the message on X on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Energy Ministry said on Wednesday that the Aramco incident late on Tuesday caused no injuries or deaths. The complex hosts a major operations center for Aramco, which oversees a vast network of onshore and offshore oil rigs, pipelines, refineries and export terminals.

Authorities also reported that drones and missiles were intercepted and destroyed in Riyadh and the country's south. Four people were injured in Riyadh after fragments from two intercepted missiles fell to the ground, Saudi Civil Defense said on Wednesday.

A powerful explosion rang out in the capital, with a phone alert sent to residents saying the city "is facing a hostile aerial threat".

Earlier on Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition struck oil sites across western Yemen, while a breaking news alert on the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV channel said "Saudi aggression" targeted the Yemen Petroleum Company facility on Sanaa's outskirts.

The Yemen conflict has resumed as a spillover from the wider US-Iran war that began with the US-Israeli attack on the Islamic republic on Feb 28. Since then multiple flights from China to the Middle East have been canceled as the security situation has become extremely severe and complex.

Air China announced on Wednesday the cancellation of three flights on three routes until Dec 31 — CA941/CA942 between Beijing and Dubai, CA451/CA452 linking Dubai and Chongqing, and CA705/CA706 operating between Beijing and Abu Dhabi.

Agencies contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at cuihaipei@chinadaily.com.cn