US warns of escalation after attack on Riyadh

ON THE MOVE: Trump unexpectedly cut short a trip to return to the White House, while the State Department warned Americans to avoid travel to the Middle East

The US on Saturday warned that hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthis could “escalate rapidly” after a missile attack targeted Riyadh for the first time since the Yemen conflict resumed.

US President Donald Trump on Saturday cut short a weekend at Camp David, a secluded presidential complex in rural Maryland, to return unexpectedly to the White House.

The White House gave no explanation for the early return, which comes as a new threshold was crossed in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, who control a large part of Yemen and are fighting government forces backed by a coalition led by Riyadh.

A person watches Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea deliver a televised statement in Sana’a on Saturday.

Photo: EPA

Loud explosions rang out twice on Saturday in the Saudi capital, where a fuel tank bearing the logo of oil giant Aramco was on fire near the airport.

“This military conflict has the potential to escalate rapidly,” the US Department of States said, adding that Americans outside the Middle East should “seriously reconsider travel to and through the region.”

The Houthis’ lightning offensive in the past few weeks seizing swathes of Yemeni territory has left hundreds dead and, according to the UN, displaced more than 110,000 people.

The clashes and the subsequent hostilities with the kingdom have already disrupted Saudi Arabia’s exports — the world’s leading supplier of crude oil — as well as maritime traffic.

The Riyadh-led coalition on Saturday evening confirmed on X that a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis towards the capital was “successfully intercepted and destroyed.”

The coalition added that the pro-Iranian fighters had tried to target “civilians and civilian infrastructure” in several cities in the west of the kingdom, including the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, an important export hub for Saudi oil.

It said the attacks were thwarted by the Gulf monarchy’s air defense.

Saudi Arabia has responded with scores of airstrikes on Houthi-held areas but failed to stop the advance.

The Houthis said it had responded to Saudi attacks by carrying out “two successful military operations using a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement on Telegram.

“The first targeted sensitive sites in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and the second targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu,” he said.

Saudi authorities had earlier issued an overnight air raid alert.

It was the first time since Yemen’s civil war resumed that strikes have threatened the Saudi capital, piling further pressure on a global economy already rocked by seven months of war between the US and Iran.

The Houthis have reported scores of retaliatory strikes carried out daily by Riyadh since their offensive this month to take over the country’s entire Red Sea coast, giving them control over the vital Bab al-Mandab Strait.