Saudi Arabia Bombs Yemen’s Oil Depots as Aramco Is Threatened
Saudi aircraft struck the Sabaha oil depot on the western edge of Sanaa and hit storage at Ras Isa port in ten waves, after issuing an evacuation warning and publishing a map of the target. Within the hour the Houthis named Aramco’s facilities a legitimate target. No casualties have been reported.
One detail cuts against the pictures: the Yemeni Oil Company says the storage tanks were empty when they were hit. The Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree told “all employees and citizens present near any facility affiliated with Aramco Petroleum in Riyadh to evacuate it and stay away from it”, naming the company’s Dammam headquarters, King Khalid International and a Riyadh refinery, and promising a “harsh and painful” reprisal. The Saudi cabinet, chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, said the Houthis would face “consequences”; the coalition says it intercepted three drones north of Riyadh. Baraa Shiban of the Royal United Services Institute explains why air dominance is not buying security: Houthi drones now “fly lower and are smaller, and are less easy to detect. They are cheap and it does not take many to get through to be effective.” Underneath it is a humanitarian emergency the strikes will not help — the World Health Organization says suspected cholera cases in Yemen have tripled in three weeks. Watch whether Riyadh’s airport, shut since Saturday, reopens as planned.