Houthis claim strikes on Riyadh financial centre, Aramco site and airport

Yemen's Houthi movement has announced that it attacked three targets in Saudi Arabia: an international airport, oil storage tanks belonging to the state energy company Aramco, and the financial centre in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. N12's Arab affairs desk reported the Houthi announcement, naming the airport as Khalid International Airport.

Separately, the Telegram channel Abu Ali Express, citing the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), reported that the King Abdullah Financial Center in Riyadh had been struck and that an Aramco building was damaged by launches from Yemen. Neither report gave details of casualties, the type of weapons used or the scale of the damage.

Who the Houthis are

The Houthis, who call their movement Ansar Allah, are an armed group based in northern Yemen. They control the capital Sanaa and much of the country's populated north, and they are backed by Iran. For years they fought a Saudi-led military coalition that intervened in Yemen's civil war, and during that conflict they repeatedly fired missiles and drones across the border at Saudi cities and energy infrastructure.

For Israeli readers the group is familiar for another reason: the Houthis have also launched missiles and drones toward Israel and have attacked shipping in the Red Sea, presenting those operations as part of a wider regional campaign alongside Iran and its allies.

What was reportedly targeted

The three sites named in the Houthi claim are among the most prominent in the kingdom.

• The financial centre. The King Abdullah Financial Center is a business district in Riyadh built to house banks, investment firms and government financial bodies, and it is a symbol of Saudi efforts to diversify the economy beyond oil.
• Aramco. Saudi Aramco is the state-controlled oil company and one of the largest energy producers in the world. Its facilities have been a recurring Houthi target in the past.
• The airport. The Houthi statement, as relayed by N12, referred to Khalid International Airport. Riyadh's main international airport is named after King Khalid.

Where the accounts differ

The two reports do not describe the damage to Aramco in the same way. According to the Houthi announcement carried by N12, the group targeted Aramco oil storage tanks. The AFP account cited by Abu Ali Express referred to a building belonging to Aramco being damaged. The reports do not make clear whether these describe the same site.

The AFP account, as relayed, also mentions only the financial centre and the Aramco structure. It does not refer to the airport, which appears only in the Houthi claim. Abu Ali Express added its own commentary, describing the strike as a particularly painful and humiliating blow for the Saudis; that is the channel's assessment rather than a reported fact.

About the reports

N12 is the news website of one of Israel's main commercial television channels, and its Arab affairs desk monitors media and official statements from across the region. Abu Ali Express is a widely followed Israeli Telegram channel that covers the Arab world, and in this case it was relaying a report attributed to AFP rather than its own reporting. Both reports were short updates posted on Telegram.

What the reports do not say

Neither report includes any statement from the Saudi government, Aramco or airport authorities, so there is no official Saudi confirmation of the attacks or account of the damage. There is no information on casualties, on whether any projectiles were intercepted, or on whether flights or oil operations were disrupted. The reports also do not say what weapons were used or give a Houthi explanation for why Saudi Arabia was targeted at this point. The airport strike rests on the Houthi claim alone.