Houthis launch fresh strikes on Saudi oil sites as Western-backed government forces vow to retake all territory from Yemeni rebels

DAILYMAIL.COM • 1h ago

By WILL HALLOWELL, NEWS REPORTER 16:26 04 Oct 2026, updated 16:45 04 Oct 2026

Houthi rebels have launched fresh strikes on Saudi oil sites as Western-backed Yemeni government forces vow to retake all territory from the Iran-backed militia.

Yahya Saree, Yemen’s Houthi military spokesman, said on Sunday that the group had launched a ballistic missile and drone attack on Saudi energy giant Aramco’s sites in capital Riyadh and the oil-rich Khurais area in the kingdom’s east.

He said: ‘Both operations successfully achieved their objectives. The strikes were precise, causing large fires at the targeted sites.’

The strikes came as Yemen’s leader announced the start of a new military operation to retake all territory held by the Houthis, even as the group made fresh gains on the ground, effectively encircling a government-held city.

The announcement sets an ambitious goal for the embattled government, which recently lost large swathes of the country’s Red Sea coastline and areas around the Bab al-Mandab Strait – a chokepoint for international shipping – after a lightning offensive by the Iran-backed Houthis.

The Yemeni government has struggled to roll back the surge, even with the military support of Saudi Arabia, where the Houthis said they had attacked oil infrastructure in the capital yet again on Sunday.

Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s presidential council, said: ‘I announce today the start of military operations to retake the remaining territories of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory.’

Mr Alimi called on Yemen’s armed forces ‘to begin carrying out their assigned missions, in accordance with the approved plans, until the country is liberated from the grip of the Houthi terrorist militia’.

The statement came just hours after the Houthis cut a vital supply route linking the besieged city of Taiz with the government’s interim capital Aden, according to four security sources.

The Houthi advance followed days of heavy fighting in and around the city.

A police source said: ‘We were informed that the Houthis had taken control of the al-Safiya area, where they cut the main road and took control of the police station.’

Three sources with the Yemeni military also confirmed Houthi control over the area and the supply route, with traffic along the road halted and the group now surrounding Taiz city.

The military sources added that fighting in the area was ongoing.

Taiz itself remains under the control of government forces but has long been besieged from the north, east and west by Houthi fighters and remains one of the main fronts in Yemen’s long-running civil war.

Farea Al-Muslimi, research fellow at the think-tank Chatham House, said: ‘They’ve achieved the military objective of isolating Taiz from Aden, even if they haven’t fully taken control of it.’

Muslimi also downplayed expectations over what the coming government offensive might accomplish.

He added that ‘in my opinion, it’s meaningless’.

Following several years of relative calm, Yemen’s civil war reignited in July against the backdrop of the wider conflict in the Middle East.

It has also drawn in Saudi Arabia – leader of an anti-Houthi military coalition since 2015 – with the group regularly claiming attacks on the kingdom’s territory in recent weeks and declaring a blockade of its ships in the Red Sea.

Saudi oil exports were already under pressure thanks to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.

The Houthis’ Al-Masirah reported Saudi strikes on Sunday in the northern governorates of al-Jawf and Saada, saying at least two people had been wounded.

They came a day after Yemen’s government said its forces struck Houthi targets around the country, including in the capital Sanaa, the northwestern governorate of Saada and the group’s positions near Taiz in the south-west.

The Yemeni government’s air capabilities, however, are limited, and the Saudi-led coalition has long been the primary force carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis.

Experts believe the recent operations have most likely been conducted by Saudi warplanes as well.

On Saturday morning, thick black smoke and flames erupted around an oil refinery in the Saudi capital as the Houthis launched a fresh attack, furthering fears of escalating oil prices around the world.

Hours after the facility was struck on Saturday morning, the Saudi military launched counter-strikes on the Iran-backed group in Yemen.

The oil refinery belongs to state-owned oil giant Aramco, which is south of Riyadh. Neither the Houthis nor Saudi authorities have yet commented on the incident.

The circumstances remained unclear, though the Houthis have claimed several attacks on facilities belonging to Aramco, majority-owned by the Saudi state, in recent months.

Firefighters were seen attempting to extinguish the enormous flames at the energy giant’s Riyadh refinery, located to the south of the capital, while ambulances and police vehicles were stationed nearby.

The Houthis have recently launched several attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia in retaliation for Riyadh backing the internationally recognised government in Yemen’s ongoing civil war.

Experts say this latest incident could drive another spike in global energy prices.

Petrol and diesel have already risen rapidly, while natural gas – used for heating homes and generating electricity – has almost doubled in the UK and Europe since July.

Notably, the Houthi strike came just a day after the G7 nations announced the release of diesel and crude stocks to ease surging fuel prices amid the simmering tensions.

The G7 – comprising France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – will deploy 100 million barrels of reserves over the next four months ‘with a frontloaded substantial diesel release within the first 20 days’, the group’s leaders said in a joint statement on Friday.

Within hours of the oil refinery being set alight on Saturday, Houthi rebels reported dozens of strikes on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

The foes have traded attacks since the Houthis seized all of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and took control of the Bab al-Mandab strait in a lightning offensive.

In Sanaa, witnesses reported hearing loud explosions and seeing warplanes firing missiles on the city.

The Houthis’ Al-Masirah channel also reported missile strikes on the telecommunications network in Yemen’s northwestern governorate of Saada, one of the group’s strongholds.

It comes after the Houthis said Saudi Arabia bombed the Yemeni capital itself on Thursday night for the first time since renewed fighting broke out between the two sides in July.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world and remains gripped by a vast humanitarian crisis that has unspooled since the civil war broke out in 2014.

That year the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa from the Saudi-backed government, before going on to take control of much of the country’s north, with Riyadh’s international coalition intervening the following year.

The renewed fighting has worsened the already appalling humanitarian conditions in Yemen, one of the world’s poorest countries, with the World Food Programme warning on Friday that three-quarters of the population was unable to meet its basic food needs.

Fighting in recent days has centred on Taiz, where dozens of combatants were reported killed on Friday by sources on both sides.

The Houthis said 55 of their fighters had been killed while government sources reported 26 troops had died.

The battle for Taiz is taking place on several fronts, including highlands overlooking coastal areas recently seized by the Houthis.

While the Houthis have conquered swathes of territory, they have yet to wrest control of Taiz city, which is Yemen’s third-largest after Sanaa and Aden.

On Friday, the Houthis said Saudi Arabia had launched 94 strikes against areas under their control in the past 24 hours.

Saudi authorities meanwhile reported a Houthi projectile had damaged a school in the city of Najran near the Yemen border.

Riyadh has reportedly requested help from the United States, a call so far rebuffed by US President Donald Trump.

On Saturday, US media outlet Axios reported that top cabinet members in the Trump administration met the day before to discuss Yemen as well as the Iran conflict, citing three US officials. The meeting was not officially announced.

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