RIYADH: The Saudi-led coalition signalled an imminent attack on an oil facility in Ansar Allah-controlled 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 battling the Yemeni group has issued an evacuation order for Yemen's Sanaa 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 Sanaa... for their own safety", said spokesman Turki al Maliki on X, referring to a site on the western outskirts of the capital.
The Ansar Allah issued a swift warning that a strike would be met with a "tough and painful response", telling employees to evacuate Saudi oil giant Aramco facilities and threatening to hit Riyadh's international airport, which they struck several times in the past week. An attack there on Saturday left 13 people dead, rocking the world's top crude oil exporter and deepening the war in Yemen, where it backs the internationally recognised government.
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. The Saudi coalition has supported Yemen's government militarily since 2015, in a long-running civil war against the Ansar Allah.
The kingdom was already facing headwinds from Iran's chokehold on Hormuz, a vital shipping route for oil and gas, since the start of the Middle East war in February, when the US and Israel attacked Iran. But the restart in July of Yemen's civil war, pitting a Saudi-led coalition backing the government against Ansar Allah, has further roiled the kingdom and brought the fight to its own soil. Ansar Allah attacks have also targeted oil tankers in the Red Sea — Saudi Arabia's alternative export route.
Blasts resounded over the Saudi capital again late on Monday, with the Saudi coalition saying it had intercepted an Ansar Allah missile and the group announcing it had once again targeted the airport, whose operations remain suspended. In the evening, mobile phones received a government alert warning of a "hostile aerial threat", before the announcement of the interception.
On Monday evening, as text messages warning of an attack were sent across the Saudi capital, Human Resources Minister Ahmad bin Sulaiman al Rajhi remained defiant at an economic forum. "We're not going out," he told the crowd at the Riyadh Economic Forum after looking at his phone.
Meanwhile, Yemen's Ansara Allah warned on Tuesday they 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 Sanaa. "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. — AFP
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