WASHINGTON: Yemen’s Ansar Allah fighters fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday, but the United States held back from launching air strikes on Iran itself for the first night in two weeks.
There was no immediate explanation from Washington of why it had abruptly halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes since an interim deal to end hostilities collapsed, in retaliation for Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
“It seems that our dear Iran had a peaceful night last night,” Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said on X.
After the quiet night in Iran, there were also no reports on Saturday of attacks from Iran on its neighbours, which have also been taking place daily in response to the US attacks.
However, the strikes from Ansar Allah on Saudi Arabia were a sign that the war that has disrupted energy supplies from the Gulf could be spreading to a second major shipping route, and reigniting Yemen’s own civil war.
Ansar Allah military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had successfully struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu. Video shared on social media and verified by Reuters showed a large column of smoke rising from the direction of the Aramco refinery in Jizan.
Two Asia-based trading sources said that they had been informed of potential damage to fuel and oil storage sites at Jizan. Aramco did not respond to requests for comment.
Yanbu is Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port, where millions of barrels a day are loaded, and has become the main route out for Saudi oil skirting the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blockaded by Iran. Jizan, on the Red Sea close to the Yemeni border, is the site of a refinery with a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day.
Earlier, the Saudi-led military alliance said it had bombed Ansar Allah’s military positions on Friday in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
The Yemeni civil war, during which hundreds of thousands of people died from fighting and famine, has been paused under a ceasefire since 2022. But that truce broke down this month, with Ansar Allah effectively joining the wider war.
US President Donald Trump on Friday vowed “major military punishment” for Tehran and the Ansar Allah after the fighters struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea. SEE ALSO P6
