appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Associated Press

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen launched a wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, wounding more than 70 people and igniting fires at oil facilities and utilities in the kingdom, authorities said.
The attack was a major escalation in renewed fighting between an important US ally and the Iranian proxy group. It also threatened to further destabilise a region rocked by nearly three years of wars and deliver a new blow to the global economy.
Weeks of clashes have added pressure to limited global oil supplies as the Houthis target a shipping route Saudi Arabia has used to transport oil to world markets while the Strait of Hormuz is throttled due to the US-Iran war.
Tuesday’s attacks hit Saudi oil facilities connected to the alternative route, the Bab el-Mandeb, a strategic waterway off the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

The conflict between Saudi Arabia, one of America’s closest Mideast allies, and the Houthis, a Shiite militant group armed and trained by Iran, goes back years.
The new fighting has threatened to reignite the country’s civil war, which began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year to try to restore the government to power.
Fighting has greatly died down since a truce was reached four years ago.
The civil war has killed at least 150,000 people, according to UN estimates, and at times pushed the country to the brink of famine.
The Houthis are part of a network of Iranian-backed proxies across the region that have stepped up attacks on regional shipping and Israel and neighbouring countries in recent years in response to Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and more recently during the US-Israeli war against Iran.
The Houthis often act in coordination with Iran but also have carried out operations independently to promote their own interests.
The attacks early on Tuesday hit “civilian and economic facilities” in the Saudi cities of Abha, Jazan, Najran and Khamis Mushait, said Major General Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.
Al-Malki said the attacks wounded 73 people, including women and children. He did not provide further details.

The attacks ignited fires at several oil facilities and utilities in Saudi Arabia’s southern region, the kingdom’s Energy Ministry said. Operations at the oil facilities and utilities were temporarily suspended, it added.
The southern region houses major oil facilities, including a 400,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery in Jazan, which is one of Saudi Arabia’s largest. The Houthis previously attacked the Abha airport.
The ministry said firefighters were battling the fires on Tuesday morning.
Al-Malki called the attacks a “serious escalation” and vowed retaliation.
In a pre-recorded video statement, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the rebels’ military spokesman, said they fired dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at oil and economic facilities, as well as an airbase in southern Saudi Arabia.
He said they targeted Jazan City for Primary and Downstream Industries, a major industrial and logistics hub on Saudi Arabia’s southwestern Red Sea coast. The rebels also aimed at Aramco facilities in Najran and Abha, as well as King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait.
Saree blamed Saudi Arabia for the escalation, warning that “every aggression against our country and people will be met with a firm response”.

The attacks came hours after the rebels blamed Saudi Arabia for an air strike that hit a prison in Yemen’s northern province of Jawf. At least seven people, including a child, were killed and seven others were wounded.
The latest escalation stemmed from a Houthi attempt in July to fly a plane from Tehran to Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, challenging a decade-long air and naval blockade by the Saudi-led coalition. A coalition air strike struck the runway of the Sanaa airport, preventing the landing of the flight.
The Houthis responded with missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, and attacks on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, ending a 2022 truce that had largely halted fighting.
The rebels also launched attacks on Saudi-allied forces inside Yemen, prompting government forces to respond with attacks on the Houthis across Yemen’s west coast and elsewhere in the country.
Government forces have reclaimed territory from the Houthis in the provinces of Hodeida and Taiz, and attacked the rebels in the northern province of Jawf as well as the central provinces of Marib and Bayda.
The flare-up has displaced about 18,500 people in Taiz and Hodeida in southwestern Yemen, further pressuring communities in southern Taiz and the West Coast, according to the International Organization for Migration.
“Families are arriving with nothing: no shelter, no food, no way to know if it’s safe to go back,” said Abdusattor Esoev, IOM Yemen’s chief of mission. “Many of these are people who have already been displaced once, twice, even four times before.”


Trump to consider releasing 9/11 records after families’ request

Middle East diplomacy stalls as war spreads, Hormuz talks postponed

US-Israeli failure to bomb Iran into submission was preordained

Hong Kong to deepen ties with Global South and Middle East, finance chief says

Middle East

Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia ignite fires at oil facilities, wound dozens

A file photo shows a Houthi drone launching from an undisclosed location in Yemen. A wave of Houthi strikes targeted civilian and economic sites across southern Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Photo: Houthi Media Centre via EPA

Yemeni government forces and National Resistance Forces fire at Houthi fighters on the Kadha front, west of the city of Taiz, on Tuesday. Photo: Yemen National Resistance Forces / AFP

Trucks burn after they were targeted by ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis near Al-Wadiah military camp in Hadramout province, Yemen, on Monday. Photo: Houthi Media Centre/Handout via Xinhua

An air strike hit a prison in Houthi-controlled Jawf province in northern Yemen on Monday, causing casualties. Photo: Houthi Media Centre via Xinhua

Hundreds killed in deadliest Yemen fighting since 2022 truce collapsed

Forces loyal to Yemen’s Saudi-backed government deploy in the Hays district, south of Hodeidah. Fighting between government forces and Houthi rebels has left hundreds dead. Photo: AFP

Heavy fighting in Yemen has forced many civilians to flee. Photo: AFP

Middle East war drives 35% rise in Hongkongers’ overseas help requests

Hongkongers’ requests for help from overseas jumped 35 per cent in the first eight months of 2026. Photo: Karma Lo

Immigration chief Benson Kwok has urged residents to keep a close eye on their passports and other personal identity documents when travelling overseas. Photo: Jelly Tse

Yemen’s Houthis attack Saudi refinery, testing new defence pact

A drone launching from an undisclosed location in Yemen. Photo:  Houthi Military Media Centre via EPA

Smoke rises during Houthi missile and drone strikes on the Red Sea port city of Mocha, Yemen, on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

A missile being launched from an undisclosed location in Yemen. Photo: Houthi Military Media Centre via EPA

Iran plans new ‘exclusion zone’ outside Strait of Hormuz after ship attacks

A motorboat passes a general cargo ship anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran on Sunday. Photo: AP

US Central Command said Saturday that one of the tankers it struck, the Kylo, had sunk in the Gulf of Oman. Photo: US Central Command via Reuters

Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Photo: Reuters

News

World

Operations halted at southern facilities as Iranian-backed rebels target border cities in a major escalation


Operations halted at southern facilities as Iranian-backed rebels target border cities in a major escalation.


Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia ignite fires at oil facilities, wound dozens

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Operations halted at southern facilities as Iranian-backed rebels target border cities in a major escalation

Operations halted at southern facilities as Iranian-backed rebels target border cities in a major escalation