Houthis claim a drone and missile strike on Saudi Arabia's Sharurah base

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Sunday, 13 September, that the group had fired ballistic missiles and drones at the Sharurah military base in southern Saudi Arabia. He wrote on X that the targets were weapons depots and command-and-control centres "managing the aggression against our nation and people." He did not give the hour of the strike. He warned of larger attacks deeper inside the kingdom if Saudi air strikes on Yemen continue.

Saudi authorities have not confirmed a hit on Sharurah. The civil defence directorate did say that a projectile launched by the Houthis landed in Al-Tuwal governorate in Jazan, on the southern border, wounding two people and damaging a mosque, several buildings and vehicles. Alerts had gone out earlier for possible incoming fire.

The week that put Sharurah back on the map

Fighting between the Houthis and Yemeni government forces, which Riyadh backs, has intensified since July after years of relative quiet following the 2022 ceasefire. On Friday the Houthis took Perim Island (Mayun) after government troops withdrew, giving them both channels of the Bab el-Mandeb. Almanaque published that seizure on Saturday. On Saturday government aircraft struck Houthi positions in Mocha and, on Sunday, the Yemeni military said the air force had hit barracks in Taiz with three strikes.

Saree said Saudi aircraft had flown 129 sorties against Houthi-held areas in 48 hours. CNN, quoting Yemeni officers, reported that calls for Saudi air cover during the Mocha advance on Thursday went unanswered. Mocha fell. Perim fell the next day. The Sharurah claim is the Houthi answer to that week.

Sharurah sits in Najran Province, close to the Yemeni border, and has been used as a logistics node for the Saudi-led campaign. A confirmed strike there would sit alongside earlier September attacks on Abha, Khamis Mushait and Jazan, which the coalition said wounded dozens and set oil kit on fire.

Two chokes, one pipeline already shut

Iran's blockade of Hormuz and the Houthi hold on Bab el-Mandeb leave Saudi crude looking for land routes. The East-West pipeline from Abqaiq to Yanbu, which had been moving an estimated 4 to 5 percent of world crude while Hormuz was closed, was shut after drones launched from Iraq hit pump stations on 10-11 September. That story is already on the Almanaque homepage. Sunday's Sharurah claim adds a southern front to the same week.

The International Organization for Migration said on Friday that at least 46,000 people had been displaced in southwestern Yemen since fighting resumed last week. The Houthis say all shipping is safe except Saudi vessels. Insurers and skippers will test that sentence against the next hull that burns.

Riyadh's silence on Sharurah may mean the missiles missed, or that the ministry is still counting. The two wounded in Jazan are confirmed. The base strike is, for now, a claim. The map around it is not.