Houthis claim drone strike on Saudi Aramco refinery

SANAA: Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed on Thursday that a drone attack targeted an Aramco refinery in the southern Saudi Arabian region, according to their affiliated news agency, Saba. A military source confirmed that the Yemeni Armed Forces employed two drones for the attack, with the strike described as precise and divinely guided.

The source attributed the attack to a response to a Saudi violation of Yemeni airspace and national sovereignty in the Saada and Hajjah governorates. The Houthi statement assured that they would respond decisively to any act of aggression against their nation. The civil war in Yemen, which has been ongoing for years, saw a collapse of a truce last month as fighting intensified between regional allies of the United States and Iran.

In July, the Houthis imposed a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, targeting Saudi tankers in the Red Sea. Recently, the Iran-backed Houthis announced a strike on an oil facility on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast in retaliation for drone incursions from the Gulf nation into northwest Yemen. These threats to shipping and Saudi oil facilities coincide with Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical point of contention between Tehran and Washington amid ongoing efforts to resolve the Middle East conflict, which began with US and Israeli military interventions in February.