Saudi Arabia has struck the Houthi-held Yemeni port city of Hodeidah after the group attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, opening a second front in a Gulf crisis already running through the Strait of Hormuz (CNBC; Al Jazeera).
The strikes, carried out late Friday, hit the city’s port and the state-run telecommunications corporation and injured two people, according to the Saudi-led coalition (Al Jazeera; The Jerusalem Post).
The Houthis answered with missiles and drones directed at Saudi Arabia. The group’s military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said in a recorded statement that the attack targeted Aramco facilities in the Red Sea cities of Yanbu and Jizan (NBC News; The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Saudi air defences intercepted two ballistic missiles fired from Yemen on Saturday that were aimed at oil refineries at Yanbu, a day after US forces launched fresh strikes on Iran (NBC News).
The exchange resolves a claim that was unconfirmed a day earlier. Reports on Saturday of a fire at Jizan attributed to a Yemeni missile were initially not confirmed by Riyadh, which issued and then cancelled a brief “potential danger” warning for Jizan and Yanbu without formal comment; the Houthi military statement has since identified both cities as intended targets.
The Saudi-led coalition said it would continue taking necessary measures to protect its shipping and the kingdom’s interests, and would respond “uncompromisingly” if the Houthis persisted. The Houthis have said they will close the Bab el Mandeb strait to Saudi-linked shipping.
That threat matters for the same reason Hormuz does. With transits through the Strait of Hormuz already down sharply under the US naval blockade, a second chokepoint at the southern end of the Red Sea would leave Gulf energy exports constrained at both ends — and Pakistan, which imports the bulk of its crude and LNG, exposed at both.
