LAGOS, Nigeria. (Voice Of Naija) Iran-backed Houthis rebels from Yemen launched a major wave of missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia in the early hours of Tuesday, September 8, wounding at least 73 people.
The strike ignited fires at oil facilities and utilities in the kingdom’s southern region in what the Saudi-led coalition has condemned as a dangerous and escalatory attack on civilian and economic infrastructure.
According to The Associated Press, reporting from Cairo at 12:02 AM on Tuesday, the report confirmed the toll and named the targets.
The Houthis struck civilian and economic facilities across four Saudi cities: Abha’s Jazan, Najran, Khamis Mushait, and Abha International Airport itself, as well as King Khalid Air Base and facilities belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco, according to Houthi media outlet Ansarollah.
Saudi authorities confirmed that fires broke out at several oil facilities and utilities before being brought under control, without specifying which Aramco installations were affected or quantifying the operational impact.
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Major General Turki al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, condemned the attacks in a formal statement, saying the rebels had targeted “civilian and economic facilities” and vowing that the coalition “will take all necessary operational measures to deter the terrorist Houthi militia with utmost resolve.”
He described the attacks as “dangerous” and “senseless,” saying 73 people, including women and children, were among the wounded.
According to CNN the attacks in the context of dramatically escalating hostilities between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen in recent weeks.
The Houthis also declared a full blockade of Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, a vital route for the kingdom’s crude oil exports at a time when Iran has already been attempting to restrict the Strait of Hormuz.
The CNN report notes that the Houthis have separately targeted refineries on the Red Sea coast operated by Aramco, and that the strikes come after days of intensifying ground combat near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which controls access to the Red Sea from the Indian Ocean, in which more than 300 people have been killed.
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The Washington Post, on Tuesday morning, adds that the attacks came hours after the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out airstrikes that struck a prison in Yemen’s northern province of Jawf, killing at least seven people, including a child and wounding seven others.
The Houthis framed Tuesday’s strikes as direct retaliation for that prison attack, deepening the cycle of escalation that has now drawn multiple parties across the region into an increasingly interconnected web of conflict.
A four-year truce between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis that had held since 2022 began fraying earlier this year as Yemen’s civil war re-ignited in the broader context of the wider Middle East war involving the United States, Israel, and Iran.
The UAE’s withdrawal from the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen this year has further complicated Riyadh’s strategic position, leaving it more exposed on multiple fronts simultaneously.
Days of fighting near the Red Sea coast have left more than 300 people dead and displaced hundreds of families, according to the Manila Times, citing coalition figures, as the Houthis attempt to seize territory bordering the strategically vital Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern entrance to the Red Sea and one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints.
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Saudi Arabia also signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan last week amid rising regional tensions, a move that signals Riyadh is preparing for a more sustained and multi-front confrontation than at any point since the original Yemen war began a decade ago.
This attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure matters immediately and directly to Nigeria. Oil prices, already elevated by the ongoing US-Iran conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, will face additional upward pressure from Tuesday’s Houthi strikes on Aramco facilities, a development that benefits Nigeria’s crude export revenues in the short term but also drives up the cost of the refined petroleum products Nigeria still imports.
More broadly, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, now a frontline of Houthi military activity is one of the world’s most critical energy and trade chokepoints.
Any sustained disruption there adds shipping costs, extends transit times for cargo moving between Asia and Europe via the Red Sea, and raises the price of goods flowing in and out of Nigerian ports.
