Yemen’s Houthis claim striking Riyadh airport, other Saudi sites
On Oct 5 the Houthis said they struck Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, an Aramco refinery and other targets in southern Saudi Arabia, while the Saudi-led coalition said its naval forces hit Houthi military targets in Hodeida, destroying weapons depots and facilities storing booby-trapped boats and naval mines. Representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey held an emergency meeting in Riyadh under a joint defence agreement signed in August and agreed to provide the agreed military forces and ensure their rapid deployment in the kingdom. A source in the Saudi energy sector said an attack on Oct 4 had again halted pumping by the East-West pipeline to the Red Sea, and Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said global oil stockpiles were “scarily thin”.
Why it matters: The strikes and counter-strikes bear on energy security, since attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and the halt in East-West pipeline pumping affect a key export conduit amid already soaring crude prices.