Saudi Arabian air defense systems intercepted two ballistic missiles launched from Yemen toward oil refineries in Yanbu on Saturday, Greek security sources told Reuters, as Saudi Arabia and the Iran-aligned Houthis exchanged fire in an escalating front in the regional conflict.
The attack came hours after the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it had struck Houthi military sites in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Friday, targeting facilities it said were linked to the group's attacks on commercial shipping. The Houthis have declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia.
Last week, Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi warned that Saudi oil infrastructure and other critical facilities would become targets for the group's missiles and drones if Riyadh deepened its involvement in the conflict.
Saudi Civil Defense, the state's emergency services agency, issued warnings for Yanbu, on the Red Sea coast, and later said the danger had passed. Civil Defense also issued a warning for the port city of Jizan, home to a 400,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery.
There were no immediate official reports of damage, and Saudi state oil giant Aramco did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters verified video shared on social media showing a large column of smoke rising from the direction of the Saudi Aramco refinery in Jizan. Two Asia-based trading sources said they had been informed of some damage at the site.
The Houthis previously attacked both Yanbu and Jizan before reaching a U.N.-brokered cease-fire with Saudi Arabia in 2022 that held until this month.
In 2019, the Houthis claimed responsibility for attacks on two key Saudi oil facilities that temporarily knocked out more than half of the kingdom's crude oil production.
The air defense system that intercepted the missiles on Saturday was operated by Greek military personnel, the sources said. Greece has deployed a U.S.-made Patriot air defense battery to Saudi Arabia since 2021 under an agreement to help protect the kingdom's energy infrastructure.
President Donald Trump on Friday vowed "major military punishment" for Tehran and its Houthi allies in Yemen after the Houthis said they had struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea on Thursday.
The Houthi naval blockade threatens millions of barrels of oil transported by pipeline each day to the Red Sea to bypass Iran's near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Saudi-led coalition said it would continue taking necessary measures to protect its ships and Saudi Arabia's interests and would respond "uncompromisingly" if the Houthis continued hostile actions.
Yemen's Houthi-run Foreign Ministry said the strikes on Hodeidah marked the start of a phase of "escalation for escalation" and held Saudi Arabia responsible for any resulting developments.
Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV said the Saudi strikes hit facilities belonging to the state telecommunications corporation in Hodeidah. The broadcaster also said Saudi forces targeted Kamaran Island, off Yemen's western coast.
Saudi Arabia fought a seven-year war in Yemen beginning in 2015 after the Houthi movement seized the capital and drove the internationally recognized government from power.
A truce in 2022 halted most major fighting in a conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people through violence, hunger and disease.
But the truce has been undermined by the Houthi attack on a Saudi airport on July 13 and the naval blockade.
The Houthis said the airport attack was a response to a Saudi strike on an airport under their control and that the naval blockade was in retaliation for what they described as a Saudi siege of Yemen, an allegation Saudi Arabia has denied.
