Houthis attacked the Aramco Tower skyscraper in central Riyadh

Strike on Riyadh's business district

On Saturday, the Aramco Tower skyscraper in the central financial district of the Saudi capital was damaged in an air attack. This was reported by BBC News. The Houthis, through the agency Saba under their control, confirmed that they attacked Riyadh's business district without naming the tower; they also claimed separate strikes on Riyadh's airport and Aramco oil storage facilities. Saudi Arabia said its air defences intercepted and destroyed several missiles.

Discrepancy in damage assessment

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy stated that the tower sustained only

Context of the escalation

The attack came a day after the Houthis accused the Saudi Arabia-led coalition of killing at least 33 people, including women and children, in an airstrike on the city of al-Shariya east of Sanaa; Saba reported 39 wounded. Saudi Arabia did not comment on the report. According to the UN, more than 1,600 people have been killed since large-scale fighting resumed, and more than 300,000 have been forced to flee their homes.

How the conflict unfolded

The coalition has been fighting the Houthis for more than a decade in support of Yemen's internationally recognised government, which lost control over a significant part of the country. The conflict had long been largely frozen but intensified after the start of the war involving Iran. The informal truce collapsed in July, when the Tehran-backed Houthis declared a of a missile hitting the company's building after a coalition strike on a fuel depot in Yemen, and on 22 October the authorities reported two deaths in an attack on an airport in the east of the country and on the US decision to evacuate some diplomats amid the escalation.

Image source, X/Naya