Yemen's Houthis announced in the early hours of Sunday, 4 October that they had attacked facilities of the oil company Aramco in Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones. According to Iran International, a Reuters eyewitness reported seeing flames and a large column of smoke near the facilities. Saudi officials have so far not confirmed the attack.
The Houthis described the attack as retaliation for Saudi airstrikes on Sanaa. Al-Masirah, the Houthi-affiliated network, had reported a new attack by Saudi fighter jets on Sanaa on Saturday evening.
According to The National, Islamic Republic forces have helped the Houthis seize Yemen's western coast, and the group is now pressing an offensive to take the city of Taiz.
UAE halts Iranian flights
According to Gulf News, the United Arab Emirates has cancelled all flights by Iranian airlines to and from the country until further notice, a decision that halts, among others, Iran Airtour flights to Dubai International Airport. At the same time, the Islamic Republic's state media reported the release of a number of Iranian prisoners in the UAE. An adviser to the government also warned the UAE that imported security has an expiry date.
Strait of Hormuz under the shadow of the blockade
On Friday a tanker was hit by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz and caught a small fire, which was brought under control without casualties. Meanwhile, Iraq's State Oil Tankers Company said it had moved two million barrels of crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Ali Qais Abdul-Jabbar, the company's director general, called it the first operation on this scale in several decades.
Iraq moved two million barrels of oil through Hormuz while the Islamic Republic's export terminals have stood empty for a month.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is fully in place and that shipping traffic through the waterway has come close to pre-war levels.
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