Houthis attack Saudi defence ministry in Riyadh; bomb airport, airbase & refinery

Yemen's Houthis claimed on Tuesday that they had attacked Saudi Arabia's defence ministry in the kingdom's capital, Riyadh, in an assault that could mark a major escalation in the searing war between the arch-enemies.However, Saudi Arabia has not confirmed whether the Houthis attacked the ministry.The Houthis also claimed to have targeted two military transport aircraft at Najran airport and an airbase in Khamis Mushait.The Iran-aligned rebels earlier said they had repelled an advance by forces they described as Saudi-backed from the southern direction of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.The Houthis said they had targeted the advancing forces with ballistic missiles and heavy weapons, causing large numbers of casualties, and that they had destroyed several military vehicles, the statement said.Later, they launched an attack on Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura oil refinery, the ⁠biggest in the kingdom, located on the Gulf west of the Strait of Hormuz.The group's military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said the strike triggered a fire at the facility. Saudi authorities have not confirmed that the attack took place.Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have intensified since September, opening another volatile front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran.Saudi Arabia ships nearly all its oil exports through two major ports, Ras Tanura on the Gulf coast and Yanbu on the Red Sea.The Houthis have previously targeted Yanbu, raising concerns over the security of the kingdom's vital oil export infrastructure.Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the matter, that Saudi Arabia had contained a fire near the Ras Tanura oil terminal in the early hours of the day.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.