Houthi strikes on four Saudi cities wound 73 in major expansion of Middle East war

Summary Yemen's Iran backed Houthi movement launched attacks on four cities in southern Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, wounding more than 70 people and setting oil facilities ablaze in what appeared to mark a significant expansion of the six month old Middle East conflict. The scale of the casualties suggested the strikes ranked among the largest carried out against Saudi Arabia since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran in February. Saudi Arabia has led an Arab military coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen for more than a decade, a war that had largely quieted in recent years before its ceasefire collapsed, with the Houthis now threatening shipping near the mouth of the Red Sea. AI Generated Summary Yemen's Iran backed Houthi movement launched attacks on four cities in southern Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, wounding more than 70 people and setting oil facilities ablaze in what appeared to mark a significant expansion of the six month old Middle East conflict. The Houthis, who control most of Yemen's populated territory including the capital, said they had carried out a wide ranging operation deep inside Saudi territory using a combination of drones and missiles. The group struck a Saudi military airbase in the southern city of Khamis Mushait, along with facilities belonging to Saudi Arabia's state oil company in nearby Abha, the border city of Najran and Jazan, a major Red Sea port that houses a large refinery and power plant. Satellite imagery showed a thick plume of black smoke rising over the Jazan refinery, along with a separate column of white smoke visible above an oil distribution centre in Abha. Saudi authorities confirmed fires at multiple sites and said 73 people were wounded in the attacks, including women and children. The scale of the casualties suggested the strikes ranked among the largest carried out against Saudi Arabia since the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran in February. No independently verified images from the ground were immediately available, and witnesses inside Saudi Arabia, where media access remains tightly restricted, could not be reached for comment. The Houthis separately released images purporting to show explosions from Saudi trucks the group said it had struck a day earlier in a different border area. Houthi controlled media outlets later reported Tuesday that Saudi warplanes had carried out retaliatory strikes in Yemen's Jubah district east of Sanaa and in Taiz province in the country's southwest. The renewed fighting comes after a month of relative calm in August, with hostilities between Iran and the United States resuming in recent days and pushing global oil prices back toward the 100 dollar per barrel level last seen at the height of the war. Brent crude climbed to 99.46 dollars on Tuesday, its highest level since late July, while US crude reached its highest point since early June. Both benchmarks pulled back slightly by the afternoon in Europe but remained higher on the day. Houthi strikes on southwestern Saudi Arabia threaten to deepen the conflict's economic fallout by disrupting energy supplies beyond the already blockaded Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia has led an Arab military coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen for more than a decade, a war that had largely quieted in recent years before its ceasefire collapsed, with the Houthis now threatening shipping near the mouth of the Red Sea. In recent days, Saudi backed Yemeni government forces based in the south have launched a multi pronged offensive against Houthi held territory after the Houthis attempted to advance on government controlled positions. The internationally recognized government, which was forced out of the capital by the Houthis 12 years ago, says it now intends to recapture all territory currently under Houthi control. The International Organization for Migration said more than 18,500 people have been displaced by fighting along Yemen's west coast over the past three days alone. Turki al Malki, spokesperson for the Saudi led coalition, said in a statement that the coalition would take all necessary operational measures to deter what he described as a terrorist militia and would continue confronting its hostile actions. Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree accused Riyadh of escalating the conflict by launching airstrikes inside Yemen and said the group would respond accordingly. The broader war in the Gulf has increasingly become a contest of endurance between the United States and Iran, with each side betting that economic pressure from competing blockades will eventually force the other to back down. The US Treasury announced new aviation related sanctions on Tuesday aimed at grounding Iranian airlines. Washington has been working to increase oil flows to global markets by escorting vessels through the Strait of Hormuz while simultaneously enforcing a blockade on Iranian exports. Iran, in turn, has announced plans to unveil a new maritime exclusion zone extending from the edge of the American blockade, through the strait and into the wider Gulf. American forces fired on Iranian tankers over the weekend in response to Iranian strikes on US warships, during which Iran said it deployed newer, more advanced ballistic missiles. Iran's Revolutionary Guards navy said Tuesday it had captured an unmanned American underwater vehicle near the mouth of the strait, though Washington had not immediately confirmed the claim. Despite American strikes that have degraded Iran's conventional military capabilities and placed further strain on its economy, Iran's missile and drone arsenal remains capable of reaching US military bases in the region and striking vessels transiting the strait, a waterway that previously carried roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply. The prolonged fighting has contributed to global shortages of crude oil and refined fuel products, with average retail diesel prices in the United States climbing to a record high above 5.90 dollars a gallon, a development that has weighed on the political standing of President Donald Trump's Republican Party ahead of the November elections. Trump said on social media that oil prices would fall sharply once the war with Iran concluded in America's favor, predicting prices would eventually drop below two dollars a gallon and insisting that Iran would never be permitted to obtain a nuclear weapon.