TUNIS, September 24. /TASS/. Forces of Yemen’s rebel Ansar Allah movement (Houthis) carried out strikes on an important facility in Riyadh and facilities of Saudi state-owned company Saudi Aramco in Yanbu in the west of the kingdom, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said.

"The Yemeni army [the Houthis - TASS] carried out two military operations: the first targeted an important facility in the capital of the Saudi enemy, Riyadh, and the second targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu," the statement said. Ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles, were used in the operations. According to the Houthi military spokesman, "the targets were successfully hit."

Saree also said that Saudi Arabia had carried out 1,018 air and missile strikes on Yemen since the escalation began. According to the statement, the strikes targeted the governorates of Marib, Saada, Al Hudaydah, Taiz, Al Jawf and Al Bayda. The movement claimed that local residents, including women and children, were killed and wounded as a result, while civilian infrastructure was also damaged.

Yemen has been locked in a confrontation between Saudi-backed government forces and the Houthis since August 2014. Tensions escalated sharply in early September after Ansar Allah launched an offensive in the country’s southwest. At the same time, the Houthis began rocket and drone strikes on Red Sea coastal areas and the outskirts of Taiz, seeking to cut routes to Mokha and advance toward the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb Strait. On September 12, Ansar Allah Political Bureau member Hizam al-Assad told TASS that the Houthis had completed an operation to establish control over areas in western Yemen with access to the strait.