Saudis retaliate for attacks by rebels in Yemen

A Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen unleashed a barrage of air strikes on the capital and a strategic Red Sea city, officials said Saturday. At least eight people were killed.

The overnight strikes on Sanaa and Hodeida — both held by the Houthis — came a day after the rebels attacked an oil depot in the Saudi city of Jiddah, their highest-profile assault yet on the kingdom.

Brig. Gen. Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said the strikes targeted “sources of threat” to Saudi Arabia, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

He said the coalition intercepted and destroyed two explosives-laden drones early Saturday. He said the drones were launched from Houthiheld oil facilities in Hodeida, urging civilians to stay away from oil facilities in the city.

Footage circulated online showed flames and plumes of smoke over Sanaa and Hodeida. Associated Press journalists in the Yemeni capital heard loud explosions that rattled residential buildings there.

The Houthis said the coalition strikes hit a power plant, a fuel supply station and the state-run social insurance office in the capital. A Houthi media office claimed a strike hit houses for guards of the insurance office, killing at least eight people and wounding four others, including women and children.

Yemen’s brutal war erupted in 2014 after the Houthis seized Sanaa. Months later, Saudi Arabia and its allies began a devastating air campaign to dislodge the Houthis and restore the internationally recognized government.

Hassan Ammar / Associated Press Smoke from a fire at a Saudi Aramco oil depot rises over the city of Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, a day after it was struck in an attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen.