Houthi militants attacked an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, August 9, causing a large fire. The Yemeni rebel group also targeted a government-controlled port on the country’s Red Sea coast, resulting in the deaths of at least 7 people and raising concerns about the possible resurgence of civil war in the country.
Yahya Saree, a spokesperson for the Houthi militants, stated on social media platform X on Sunday that the organization used drones to attack a Saudi Aramco oil refinery in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, in response to previous drone operations by Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Ministry of Energy reported that a fire broke out at the state-owned oil company’s refinery early that morning, but the blaze was quickly extinguished with no injuries reported. Authorities are currently investigating the incident, though the cause of the fire has not been specified.
Prior to this attack, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey had just signed a defense agreement similar to NATO last Friday. The agreement stipulates that an attack on any of the three countries would be considered an attack on all of them.
This alliance, comprised of three Sunni Muslim nations, aims to strengthen collective deterrence against any aggression to address the increasingly unstable situation in the Middle East since the outbreak of the Iran war. It remains unclear whether Pakistan and Turkey will respond to the Houthi militant attack and in what manner they will respond.
On the same day, Saree also announced in another statement that the Houthi militants launched missile and drone attacks on the port city of Mocha in Yemen.
Mocha port, controlled by the Yemeni government, is strategically located near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, connecting the southern Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean. The closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait could deprive Saudi Arabia of an alternative shipping route to the Strait of Hormuz.
The Houthi militants claimed that the target of this attack was the government’s military forces and armory in the region.
The allied forces of the Yemeni government, the National Resistance Forces, reported that the attack resulted in the deaths of at least 7 individuals, including 4 soldiers and 3 civilians, with an additional 15 civilians injured.
Furthermore, the Yemeni Ministry of Transport stated in a release that the attack caused severe damage to critical civilian infrastructure in the port of Mocha.
Iran and its supported Houthi militants continue to launch occasional attacks in both the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, disrupting international shipping in these key maritime routes.
In recent days, Houthi rebels have also carried out attacks in other government-controlled areas, intensifying concerns that Yemen may experience a resurgence of civil war following the ceasefire in 2022.