Houthis target Riyadh as Saudi strikes kill 34 in Yemen

A projectile damaged an Aramco tower in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District on Sunday, with shrapnel striking the building and causing limited damage but no casualties, according to a Saudi Energy Ministry official quoted by the state news agency SPA. A witness and the ministry also confirmed the incident, Reuters reported.

The Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognized government said it had intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by Yemen’s Ansar Allah (Houthi) group, one toward Riyadh and the other toward southern Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Saudi airstrikes continued in areas of Yemen under Ansar Allah control. The group’s news agency Saba reported Sunday that “a number of citizens, including women and children, were injured” in Saudi strikes on the Al-Shamayatayn district in Taiz governorate.

On Saturday, Ansar Allah military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said Saudi Arabia had carried out 105 airstrikes and missile attacks in the preceding 24 hours, targeting civilian sites in Sanaa and the governorates of Al-Jawf, Taiz, Amran, Hajjah, Saada, Marib, and Lahj.

He said Saudi Arabia had deployed F-15 and Typhoon fighter jets from the Khamis Mushait and Taif air bases, alongside missile attacks launched from Najran and Jizan. The operations had killed and wounded dozens of civilians, most of them women and children, he said.

The Ansar Allah-run Ministry of Health and Environment said Sunday that preliminary figures showed 34 people had been killed and 49 injured in Saudi military operations in Yemen over the preceding 24 hours. On Saturday, the ministry reported that at least 33 people had been killed and 39 injured in Saudi airstrikes on a village near the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

Fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen intensified last July, following the collapse of a UN-mediated truce reached between the two sides in 2022. According to Yemen’s Health Ministry, the renewed fighting has killed 340 people and injured 724.

The escalation has further deepened Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said nearly 300,000 people had been displaced since the beginning of August. Even before the latest escalation, Yemen had 5.2 million internally displaced people, out of a population of around 42 million.

On Oct. 15, AFP quoted a Saudi Foreign Ministry official as saying Riyadh had invited Ansar Allah to meet in Muscat in the preceding weeks, but the group had declined. The official said this was the last communication between the two sides before the latest escalation.

On Nov. 5, The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with negotiations between the two sides, reported that Ansar Allah had demanded compensation from Saudi Arabia for damage caused by its airstrikes and prolonged blockade. The group estimated the amount at around $51 billion.

The newspaper said other figures had also been discussed, adding that “the message was clear: The price of getting out of the war would be tens of billions of dollars,” along with Saudi recognition of Ansar Allah’s rule.

An analyst quoted by the newspaper said Ansar Allah’s substantial demands, particularly the financial ones, were not Riyadh’s main concern. The greater risk, the analyst said, was setting a precedent that could encourage the group to use military escalation as leverage to secure more money and concessions in the future.