Yemen's Houthi movement says it attacked Saudi Aramco's Jazan refinery with a drone on Sunday, two days after Saudi Arabia signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan. Saudi authorities say a fire at the refinery was extinguished with no injuries, and the Houthis also struck the Yemeni port city of Mocha.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it attacked Saudi Aramco's Jazan refinery on Sunday, two days after Saudi Arabia signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan. Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said a fire broke out at the refinery but was later extinguished, with no injuries and no cause given.
Drone strike hits Jazan again
The Houthis used a drone to target the refinery, military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on X. The group had struck Aramco sites in Jazan before — a plant that processes 400,000 barrels a day of crude oil in southwestern Saudi Arabia — and had also hit the Yanbu site on the Red Sea. Saree said the Houthis also carried out missile and drone strikes on the Yemeni port city of Mocha, targeting Saudi troops and a weapons arsenal there; there was no Saudi comment on the strikes in Yemen.
Blockade adds to Red Sea tension
Yemen's Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea last month, citing what they said was a Saudi siege — an allegation Riyadh denies. Since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, Iran and its allied armed groups have been firing on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states and blockading their energy shipments.
Riyadh forms defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan
The wider escalation has disrupted global energy supplies and rattled the world's economy. That prompted Saudi Arabia to form a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan on Friday, under which an armed attack on any of the three counts as an attack on all. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the pact was not directed against Iran or any other country, but rather served as a general pledge to support the three allies' security; it remained unclear whether or how Pakistan or Turkey would join any Saudi response to the latest strikes.
Jazan was already shut when the strike hit
Aramco had shut the Jazan refinery on July 27, after an earlier Houthi attack damaged its Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle complex and tank farm, according to a note from consultancy IIR seen by Reuters. Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said last week that recent attacks on the company's facilities had caused some production interruptions, adding he was confident operations could be restored quickly and that the attacks had no material operational or financial impact.
Source: Investing.com
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