SANAA/RIYADH: Yemen’s Houthis said on Tuesday that Saudi strikes had killed 17 civilians over two days this week, as they fight a Saudi-led coalition backing the internationally recognised government.
The Houthi health ministry said in a statement that most of the people killed were children, “which shows that Saudi aircraft are targeting homes, residential neighbourhoods and markets”.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said that Riyadh had carried out “109 strikes over the past 24 hours” in Yemen, targeting the governorates of Saada, Taiz, Lahj, Al-Jawf and Hodeidah.
The group also claimed drone attacks on Saudi airports in the east and south of the kingdom. Yemen has been beset by war since 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa, with a Saudi-led coalition entering the conflict a year later in support of the government.
Riyadh claims destroying inbound drone near Makkah
A 2022 truce fell apart in July and, in September, the Houthis launched an offensive to capture the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which links Europe to Asia via the Red Sea and Suez Canal. The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since fighting resumed in the impoverished country.
Saudis intercept drone
The Saudi-led coalition said on Tuesday it had intercepted a drone in the region of Makkah.
“Interception and destruction of a drone in the Makkah region,” Turki al-Malki, the coalition’s spokesman, wrote on social media, without elaborating on the source of the attack.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree denied that they had carried out any attacks on Saudi territory on Tuesday, calling the Saudi statement “a slanderous and recycled lie”.
Aramco profits surge
Saudi oil giant Aramco on Tuesday announced a 34.6pc surge in third-quarter net profit, as the Middle East war keeps crude prices soaring while the kingdom’s energy infrastructure comes under regular attack. Houthis have targeted Saudi tankers, pipelines, storage facilities and refineries regularly since hostilities resumed in July, intensifying their strikes in recent weeks.
The kingdom has also had to contend with the Houthis and Iran hampering traffic in the straits of Bab al-Mandeb and Hormuz, complicating exports.
Yet Aramco — the cornerstone of Saudi Arabia’s economy and one of the world’s most valuable companies — saw its profits soar during the third quarter thanks in large part to stubbornly high oil prices.
The firm said net profit hit 135.9 billion riyals ($36.2 billion) in the third quarter, compared with around 101 billion riyals in the same period a year earlier. The results come as energy majors around the world have seen earnings surge because of disruptions to oil and gas supplies in the Middle East, pushing up refining margins and prices. But Aramco’s boss warned that the conflict continued to weigh heavily on energy security.
“Geopolitical uncertainty and attacks on key energy facilities continued to amplify the global energy supply crisis in the third quarter of 2026, with serious implications for global energy security,” president and CEO Amin H. Nasser said in a statement.
In the second quarter, Aramco reported a 44 percent year-on-year increase in net profit to 122.6 billion riyals.
Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2026
