Saudi’s biggest oil refinery hit with missile, say Yemen’s Houthis

DUBAI, UAE – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Tuesday, October 27, they had hit Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery, the ⁠biggest in the kingdom, with a ballistic missile. Intensifying hostilities between Yemen and Saudi Arabia have further disrupted oil supplies and heightened the risk of a wider regional conflict , eight months since the Iran war began. The Houthis also said they had attacked Saudi military aircraft and repelled an advance by Saudi-backed forces near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, an important Red Sea shipping route. The Houthis’ military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said the strike on the Ras Tanura refinery had caused a fire at the complex, which also includes a shipping terminal and is located on the Gulf, west of the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi authorities did not immediately confirm the strike.

Ras Tanura, which has a capacity of 550,000 barrels per day, was shut for a period in the early months of the Iran war as a precautionary measure. Nearly all Saudi Arabia’s oil exports flow through two main ports: Ras Tanura in the Gulf and Yanbu on the Red Sea, both of which the Houthis have attacked in the past. Bloomberg News cited a person familiar with the matter as saying Saudi Arabia had contained a fire near Ras Tanura’s terminal. Airstrikes The ​Houthis said they had attacked two military transport jets at Najran Airport and an airbase in Khamis Mushait. They also said they attacked the Saudi defense ministry building in Riyadh, and Abha airport. There was no immediate Saudi confirmation of the attacks. On Tuesday afternoon, civil defense authorities briefly issued an air raid alert in the Saudi capital Riyadh. Falling debris from the interception of two ballistic missiles over Riyadh caused material damage to a building, a construction site and a…