Saudi Arabia’s coalition attacked a fuel depot on the outskirts of Sanaa on Tuesday evening after warning civilians to stay away from the site, part of what it described as an operation to neutralise Houthi capabilities threatening the kingdom, Yemen and international waterways. Houthi-run Al-Masirah television reported that the target was the Yemen Petroleum Company’s Sabah central station. The coalition said the sites it struck in Sanaa, Hodeidah and Dhamar were being used to supply the group’s missile and drone arsenal.
Yemen Petroleum said the facility held no petroleum product stocks at the time and that the strike did not affect oil reserves or supply chains. The Houthis had earlier threatened a harsh response to any strikes on Sanaa, naming the Saudi Aramco headquarters in Dhahran and a refinery in Riyadh as possible targets, and renewed warnings to oil workers in Saudi Arabia to stay away from potential target sites. On Wednesday the group’s campaign reached Dhahran, where an attack on an Aramco administrative building caused a limited fire, according to the Saudi energy ministry.
The escalation matters to energy markets because of geography. Saudi Arabia resumed its military campaign in Yemen last month after Houthi forces swept down the Red Sea coast toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea. That strait has become a more vital route for Saudi and global energy supplies since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in February, and government forces have pushed the Houthis back from the area closest to the strait while the group remains embedded nearby.
Diplomatically, the kingdom is looking for backing. Turkey’s president told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday that Ankara would stand by the kingdom, and President Trump said he had also spoken to the crown prince. Washington, however, has so far rebuffed Saudi efforts to draw it directly into the war against the Houthis, leaving the Red Sea energy corridor defended by a coalition whose adversary has now demonstrated it can hit the Saudi oil capital.