Houthi strikes hit southern Saudi energy sites and wound 73

Yemen's Houthis struck civilian and economic targets in four southern Saudi cities on Tuesday and wounded 73 people, including women and children, according to Colonel Turki al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition. He named Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran. The Saudi energy ministry, in a separate note that did not name the attacker, said several energy sites in the south caught fire, that citizens and residents were hurt, and that some operations stopped while crews contained the blazes. The ministry said work would resume under existing plans.

Saba, the Houthi-run agency, said the movement would issue a statement on a "large-scale" operation. Yahya Saree, the Houthi spokesman, had warned on Monday that strikes on Yemen would be answered. The Financial Times wrote on Monday that Aramco's Jazan complex had already been hit and that the damage was being counted. Aramco had not commented when the coalition statement landed. Reuters could not confirm the FT report.

Oil moved on the ministry's words. Brent rose about a dollar toward $98. US crude added more than two dollars and traded near $93.65. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter and the de facto leader of OPEC. A fire at a southern plant is not a shutdown of Ghawar. It is enough, on a morning when Iran is also talking about a Gulf exclusion zone, to reprice the barrel.

The Houthis have been firing at Saudi targets since they declared a naval blockade on Riyadh in July and began hitting ships in the Red Sea. The latest wave comes as the internationally recognised Yemeni government, backed by Riyadh, pushes a ground offensive that AFP described as the deadliest fighting in the country since 2022, with more than 300 killed. The Houthis accused Saudi aircraft of striking a prison in al-Hazm in al-Jawf and killing seven people, including a child. That claim sits on the same day as the southern fires.

Al-Malki called the attacks dangerous and said the coalition would take "all necessary operational measures" against the source. That language has preceded previous Saudi air campaigns over Sanaa and the Red Sea ports. It does not, by itself, say what flies tonight. The energy ministry's quieter line, that plants will return to their planned rates, is an attempt to tell cargo buyers the outage is local and short.

Four cities, 73 wounded, fires at unnamed facilities, and a barrel back near $98 are the facts that can be printed this morning. The missing pieces are the names of the plants, the duration of the halt, and whether Jazan is among them. Until Aramco or the ministry publishes those names, traders will treat the south of the kingdom as a new risk line on a map that already has Hormuz on it.