Yemen threatens to hit Riyadh airport, refinery if Saudi strikes Sana’a
Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement warned on Tuesday its forces would target Riyadh's airport, a refinery, and an Aramco facility in Dammam if the Saudi-led coalition follows through on its threat to strike an oil facility in Sana’a.
"The Yemeni Armed Forces urge all citizens to immediately evacuate and move away from targets that our forces will strike should the Saudi enemy target" a site in Sanaa, military spokesman Yahya Saree posted on X, identifying the three targets as Aramco's headquarters in Dammam, as well as the airport and an Aramco refinery in Riyadh. The warning came after the Saudi-led coalition signaled an imminent attack on an oil facility in Yemen's capital on Tuesday, warning civilians in the surrounding area to get out.
After a series of attacks on the kingdom's airports and oil facilities, it was the first time the coalition has issued an evacuation order for Yemen's Sana’a since their war flared up again in July.
The coalition demanded "that civilians evacuate the site of the Yemen Petroleum Company, the al-Sabaha Central Station in Sana’a... for their own safety", said spokesman Turki al-Maliki on X, referring to a site on the western outskirts of the capital.
An attack on Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday left 14 people dead, rocking the world's top crude oil exporter and deepening the war in Yemen.
The kingdom was still weathering fresh attacks on Tuesday, with the coalition saying its forces intercepted three drones north of Riyadh.
Many countries have since issued travel warnings to their citizens in Saudi Arabia, most recently France, which told its citizens to avoid the airports in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam on Tuesday.
Traffic in perennially gridlocked Riyadh was noticeably lighter this week, as remote learning for all schools and work-from-home orders for some companies took effect, according to AFP journalists in the capital.
Saudi Arabia faces a major economic contraction this year, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday, predicting a regional drop over Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.