War expands as Houthis strike Saudi cities and US hits Iranian tankers

The Middle East war widened sharply on Tuesday as Houthi forces struck four southern Saudi cities, injuring 73 people and setting oil facilities ablaze. The attacks brought the conflict deeper into the territory of a key US ally and appeared to rank among the largest Houthi assaults on Saudi Arabia since the war began.

The Houthis said they launched a broad operation using drones and missiles. Their targets included a Saudi airbase in Khamis Mushait and assets belonging to state oil company facilities in Abha, Najran and Jazan. NASA satellite images showed thick black smoke over the Jazan refinery and a column of white smoke rising from an oil distribution centre in Abha.

Saudi authorities said women and children were among those injured and reported fires at the sites. The attacks came as global oil markets reacted to the widening violence and Brent crude reached its highest level since July 23. Prices nevertheless stayed below $100 a barrel.

“

Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they're going to lose tankers.

The escalation coincided with renewed US attacks on Iranian oil shipping. The US Central Command said it destroyed four Iranian Revolutionary Guard crude carriers in the Gulf of Oman and a fifth near Kharg Island after Iran targeted a US Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice in two days. “Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships, and for every time they do that or try to do that, they're going to lose tankers,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Colombia.

Central Command said US forces ordered the crews to abandon ship before striking the vessels and rendering them inoperable. Iran then said it had launched a ballistic missile attack on a US base near Al Azraq in eastern Jordan, although Jordan and the US military had not immediately confirmed the report. The latest exchanges followed a month-long lull in August and renewed a cycle of pauses and flare-ups that has disrupted shipping around the Arabian Peninsula and threatened oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

“

American forces directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck and rendered inoperable.