Sanaa (South24) 

Yesterday, the Yemeni Houthi rebels launched drone and missile attacks on oil and civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia.

Masses of flames and smoke erupted in the city of Jeddah, after targeting an oil distribution station belonging to Aramco.

Saudi Arabia also announced that its air defenses had shot down 9 drones and a number of ballistic missiles that were launched towards Jazan and Najran, in southern the Kingdom.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted the Coalition as saying that a small fire broke out in a Samtah power station, and water tanks in Dhahran Al-Janoub were attacked by drones.

The Houthis, through their military spokesman, claimed that they had carried out a qualitative military operation in Saudi Arabia.

The spokesman said: "The Yemeni armed forces carried out the third operation to break the siege, with ballistic and winged missiles and the unmanned aerial weapon."

He added, "We targeted Aramco's facilities in Jeddah, and vital facilities in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with batches of missiles."

The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen: An Act of Aggression Targeted Aramco’s Bulk Plant in Jeddah.https://t.co/nircYzEsSs#SPAGOV pic.twitter.com/UsmSymtJwe

— SPAENG (@Spa_Eng) March 25, 2022

The group also announced that it also targeted the Tanoura and Ras Rabigh oil refineries with a number of drones, and other targets in the southern cities of the Kingdom.

In response to the Houthi attacks, the Saudi-led Coalition announced that it had carried out, at dawn on Saturday, air strikes on the sources of threat in the governorates of Sanaa and Hodeidah.

The Houthis said that 8 civilians, including women and children, were killed in the airstrikes on Sanaa, and 4 others were wounded.

In Hodeidah on the Red Sea, the Houthi "Al-Masirah" channel said that 6 Saudi air strikes targeted oil installations and the Electricity Corporation.

 The Saudis were also accused of carrying out a raid on the Salif port in Hodeidah.

It is noteworthy that the Houthis have intensified their attacks on Saudi oil facilities in the past few days in an unprecedented manner.

These attacks come as the war in Yemen enters its eighth year, and in light of moves led by the GCC to gather the Yemeni parties at the consultations table at the end of March.

In a speech to his supporters, Yesterday, the Houthi's leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi, said that they produce ballistic missiles and drones in northern Yemen.

Al-Houthi claimed that Yemen would be at the forefront of arms-producing countries, and promised to enter the eighth year of the war with greater force and escalation against the Saudi-led coalition.

The Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia drew widespread international and Arab condemnation of the attack, saying that it endangered the world's economy and energy.

The Saudi Energy Ministry also warned that the continued Houthi attacks on oil facilities would jeopardize global energy security.

The ministry said: "Houthi targets undoubtedly threaten the security of energy supplies to global markets."

South24 Center for News and Studies 

Photo: Jeddah oil facility after the missile attack (Viral)