Saudi-led coalition warplanes reportedly struck a Yemen Petroleum Company facility in Al-Sabaha, west of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Tuesday, October 13, amid escalating tensions with the Houthi group.
Al-Masirah, the Houthi-affiliated broadcaster, reported the strike on the facility. Separately, Al Arabiya, citing sources in Sanaa, reported that explosions were heard in the capital following airstrikes by warplanes.
Earlier on Tuesday, Coalition spokesperson Major General Turki Al-Malki announced on X that the Joint Forces Command had urged civilians to evacuate the Yemen Oil Company’s central Al-Sabah station in Sanaa ahead of a planned operation. The coalition shared an illustrative map identifying the site and said the warning was intended to ensure civilian safety.
The warning came as the coalition announced that it had intercepted and destroyed three drones north of Riyadh.
Houthis say oil station had no military significance
Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree cited a source at the Yemen Petroleum Company as saying that the Al-Sabaha station was empty of petroleum products and had no military significance.
Before the reported strikes, Saree warned that any strikes on Sanaa would be met with a “harsh and painful” response in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital.
In a subsequent post on X on Tuesday, Saree named three locations the Houthis threatened to strike if Saudi Arabia proceeded with attacks on the sites announced in Sanaa: Aramco’s headquarters in Dammam, an airport in Riyadh identified as Khaled Airport, and the Riyadh refinery affiliated with Aramco. He urged civilians to evacuate immediately and stay away from the locations.
In another warning, Saree extended the alert to employees, experts, engineers and workers at Saudi oil facilities, urging them to avoid locations that could be targeted. He also issued warnings to aviation companies, airport workers and travellers, calling on them to heed the group’s notices.
The exchange comes amid renewed fighting in Yemen. Earlier on Monday, the Houthis claimed that 119 air raids and missile strikes had targeted Sanaa and other Yemeni provinces over the preceding 24 hours. Yemeni government forces separately announced that they were intensifying military operations against the group.
The latest escalation has raised concerns about a return to large-scale fighting. A UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted major combat operations and brought a period of relative calm, although it formally expired later that year.
Yemen’s conflict escalated in late 2014 when the Houthis seized Sanaa and large parts of the country’s north. In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition intervened militarily in support of the internationally recognised Yemeni government.
