Houthis claim missile, drone strikes on Riyadh and Yanbu Aramco sites

Sanaa: Yemen's Houthis declared on Saturday that it executed strikes targeting "sensitive sites" in the Saudi capital of Riyadh alongside oil infrastructure in the kingdom's port city of Yanbu, coming hours after residents in Riyadh reported hearing explosions.

"In response to the Saudi enemy's criminal attempts to target the capital Sana'a... the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two successful military operations using a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement released on Telegram.

"The first targeted sensitive sites in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the second targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu."

The statement from the Houthi group followed an incident in which emergency personnel extinguished a fire on a fuel storage tank carrying the logo of Saudi state oil company Aramco at a depot situated near Riyadh's international airport on Saturday, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

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Flight-tracking service FlightRadar24 logged "major problems" affecting operations at Riyadh King Khalid International Airport before commercial air traffic began resuming normal routines.

The action coincides with a rapid offensive by Yemen's Houthi forces, who have captured additional territory, forcing the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government to scramble a response.

Saturday's disruptions followed an overnight air raid alert issued by Saudi authorities, marking the first such emergency warning distributed in the capital since fighting in neighbouring Yemen intensified earlier this month.

A few hours after the early morning warning was issued, local residents informed AFP that they had heard what appeared to be a sequence of detonations echoing across several districts of the capital.

AFP