The number of people killed in airstrikes on a village near Yemen’s capital has risen to 44, most of them women and children, health officials with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels said late Sunday, as the rebels pressed their own attacks deep inside Saudi Arabia, damaging the Riyadh headquarters building of oil giant Aramco.
The strikes Saturday on al-Shariya, a village east of Sanaa, also wounded 40 people, including eight children and nine women, said Anees al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run Health Ministry. Among the dead were 21 children and 10 women, he said, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the latest wave of fighting in Yemen, The Associated Press noted.
Al-Asbahi said rescue crews were still combing the area for missing people, raising concern that the toll could climb further.
He blamed Saudi Arabia for the strikes. Saudi authorities said they were investigating, Reuters said. The figures could not be independently verified.
The attack comes amid a sharp escalation between the Houthis and the kingdom that has killed hundreds of people in Yemen and dozens in Saudi Arabia.
Aramco tower hit in Riyadh
Hours after the Houthi death toll was raised, windows were blown out across several floors of Aramco’s corporate office in the heart of Riyadh’s financial district on Sunday, Reuters said. Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry attributed the damage to debris from an attempted attack on the building.
The ministry said the damage to the Aramco Tower was limited and that no one was killed or injured. It did not say who was responsible. The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said Saudi air defenses had intercepted Houthi missiles over the capital in the early morning hours.
The Houthis claimed responsibility. Their military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said Riyadh’s international airport was also targeted Sunday, though Saudi authorities did not confirm that. A strike on the airport in October killed 13 people and wounded more than 300.
The coalition said its air defenses also intercepted a Houthi missile over the Eastern Province, home to most of the oil and gas reserves of the world’s largest crude exporter. In two separate statements, it said it had destroyed ballistic missile launchers in Saada and Sanaa used in Sunday’s attacks on Riyadh and the Eastern Province.
The rebels have intensified strikes on Aramco facilities in recent weeks, including the company’s headquarters in Dhahran.
The attack came on the same day many Saudi schools reopened for in-person classes after weeks of remote learning, and several government agencies returned to their offices after work had been suspended following earlier Houthi attacks.
A new front in a wider war
Fighting between the Houthis and the coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government escalated after the rebels advanced in September toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a strategic shipping chokepoint on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz.
The Houthis have since stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi ports and airports, turning the conflict into another front in the broader U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, Reuters said. Saudi Arabia has responded with airstrikes on Houthi targets inside Yemen.
The kingdom, a key U.S. ally, has sought both defensive and offensive help from the United States and several countries in Europe and the Middle East. Britain said in October it would deploy fighter jets on defensive missions to help shield Saudi cities from Houthi attacks.
Riyadh has also pursued diplomacy. Senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, the countries of the so-called Mecca defense pact, met with Iranian officials in Tehran last month. Iran later said talks with Riyadh were continuing on new regional security arrangements that would exclude foreign military involvement.
Separately, Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected remarks made over the weekend by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who described Tehran’s demands for ending the war as “ridiculous,” the AP said.
Civilian toll mounts as both sides widen their targets
The al-Shariya strike and the attack on the Aramco Tower illustrate how quickly the Yemen front has expanded in scope. The Houthis are now reaching Saudi Arabia’s political and financial core, while airstrikes in Yemen are increasingly falling on residential areas, with women and children making up the majority of the dead in Saturday’s attack, according to Houthi health officials.
The casualty figures come from a party to the conflict, and Saudi authorities have said only that they are investigating. That leaves the central question of responsibility unresolved for now. But if the toll and its composition are confirmed, the strike would rank among the most serious civilian losses of the current escalation and is likely to draw international scrutiny of the coalition’s targeting.
The Riyadh attack carries a different kind of significance. Even with limited damage and no casualties, debris shattering windows at Aramco’s headquarters in the capital’s financial district is a symbolic blow. It came as Saudi schools and offices were returning to normal routines, a sign that the kingdom’s efforts to project stability remain vulnerable to Houthi strikes.
The broader picture points to a conflict increasingly tied to the U.S.-Israeli confrontation with Iran. The Houthi push toward the Bab el-Mandeb threatens one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, while repeated strikes on Aramco target the backbone of Saudi Arabia’s economy and global energy supplies.
Riyadh appears to be pursuing two tracks at once: seeking more military backing from allies while talking with Tehran about a regional security framework without foreign forces. The exchange between Rubio and Iran’s Foreign Ministry over terms for ending the war suggests that a wider diplomatic settlement remains distant, leaving Yemeni civilians and Saudi cities exposed as the fighting intensifies.
Sources: The Associated Press (AP); Reuters
