in brief
- The latest attacks suggest the fighting is spreading beyond the immediate US-Iran theatre.
- Damage to Saudi oil facilities and renewed fighting around Iran could disrupt supplies across multiple routes.
Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels attacked four cities in southern Saudi Arabia, a US ally, on Tuesday, injuring more than 70 people and setting oil facilities ablaze in what appeared to be a significant escalation of the six-month-old conflict in the Middle East.
At the same time, explosions were reported on Kharg Island, Iran’s major oil hub, and in the Gulf of Oman port of Jask, according to Iranian media, suggesting that US strikes against Iran may have resumed following a two-day pause.
Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that a US missile hit an Iranian tanker approximately 6 kilometres from Kharg Island. The vessel’s crew was reportedly being evacuated, although no casualties were reported, citing local sources.
The Pentagon did not immediately comment on the reports. However, a Fox News reporter, citing unidentified senior US officials, said the strikes were carried out by the US military.
In Saudi Arabia, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen's populated areas including the capital, said they had launched a broad operation deep into Saudi territory.
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They used drones and missiles to strike a Saudi airbase in the southern city of Khamis Mushait as well as Saudi state oil company assets in the cities of Abha, Najran and Jazan.
NASA satellite images showed a thick cloud of black smoke over the Jazan refinery and a column of white smoke rising from an oil distribution centre in Abha.
Saudi authorities described blazes at the sites and said women and children were among the 73 people hurt.
The reports of such large numbers of wounded suggested the attacks were among the biggest carried out against Saudi Arabia since the US and Israel launched their war against Iran in February.
No confirmed images from the ground of the attacked Saudi cities were available, and witnesses could not be reached in a country where media is tightly controlled.
Fighting drives up oil prices
After a month of calm in August, fighting in the Gulf has resumed, with Iran and the U.S. exchanging fire, sending global oil prices back towards the US$100 ($138.5) a barrel level passed at the war's peak.
Prices for benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 and US West Texas Intermediate CLc1 rose and were on track for their highest closes since July 23.
Houthi attacks on southwestern Saudi Arabia have the potential to worsen the war's global economic impact by disrupting Middle East energy supplies beyond the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling against the Houthis in Yemen for more than a decade. That war had calmed in recent years, but a ceasefire there has broken down, with the Houthis threatening shipping at the mouth of the Red Sea.
In recent days, Saudi-backed Yemeni forces of a government based in the south have launched a multipronged offensive on Houthi-held areas, after the Houthis tried to advance on government-held positions.
The government, which was driven out of the capital by the Houthis 12 years ago, says it now aims to recapture all Houthi-held territory.
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