Saudi Arabia Strikes Houthi Targets as Red Sea War Escalates

Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis said Saudi Arabia was attacking the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday after a Saudi-led coalition warned civilians to stay away from an oil depot on the city's outskirts, part of a rapidly escalating war between the sides.

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Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, August 3, 2026.

REUTERS/Stringer RIYADH, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis said Saudi Arabia was attacking the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday after a Saudi-led coalition warned civilians to stay away from an oil depot on the city’s outskirts, part of a rapidly escalating war between the sides.

The Houthis have for a week been targeting Saudi airports, including a strike on Riyadh on Saturday that killed 13 people, in retaliation for the kingdom’s backing of government forces against the Houthis in Yemen’s reignited civil war.

Houthi-run Al-Masirah television reported that the Saudi-led coalition had targeted the Yemen Petroleum Company’s Sabah central station, a fuel depot on the outskirts of Sanaa.

The coalition said in a statement on Tuesday evening that it attacked the station and other sites in an operation aimed at “neutralizing the capabilities of Houthis” to threaten the kingdom, Yemen and international waterways.

It said the Iran-aligned group was using the sites in Sanaa, Hodeidah and Dhamar to “supply its arsenal of missiles and drones” to attack Saudi Arabia and commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

YPC said the facility did not currently hold any stocks of petroleum products and that targeting it did not affect oil reserves or supply chains.

However, the Houthis had earlier threatened a “harsh and painful” response to any strikes on Sanaa, with spokesperson Yahya Saree saying targets could include the Saudi Aramco headquarters in Dhahran and an oil refinery in Riyadh.

The group renewed earlier warnings it had issued to oil workers in Saudi Arabia, telling them to stay away from sites that could be potential targets.

The Saudi cabinet, chaired by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, issued a statement saying the Houthis would face consequences for their repeated attacks on the kingdom.