SANAA, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi group said Sunday that it had launched four military operations involving ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones against an international airport and a financial center in the Saudi capital Riyadh, oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, as well as troop positions inside Yemen, claiming extensive damage and casualties.
In a statement aired by the group's al-Masirah TV, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the first operation targeted King Khalid International Airport, Saudi energy giant Aramco's oil storage tanks and a financial center in Riyadh, claiming direct hits and significant damage.
Sarea said a second struck Aramco facilities in Abqaiq, a major oil processing hub in the kingdom's Eastern Province, claiming that the attack hit its intended targets and sparked fires.
Earlier in the day, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy said that an administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco in Riyadh had been targeted in an attempted attack, causing minor damage but no casualties.
Meanwhile, Sarea added that two further operations targeted gatherings of Yemen's government forces, which he said were under the command of Saudi officers, in Yemen's northern Al-Jawf province, Medghal district in neighboring Marib province, and the Al-Madaribah area of southern Lahj province, claiming many soldiers were killed or wounded.
He described the operations as retaliation for recent Saudi airstrikes on Al-Hadarah public market in Al-Wazi'iyah district of southwestern Taiz province and residential houses in Bani Hushaysh district, east of the capital Sanaa.
He said the two attacks had killed or wounded more than 120 people, most of them women and children.
The spokesman vowed to continue striking targets deep inside Saudi Arabia and troop positions in Yemen until what he described as Saudi "aggression" and a "blockade" of Houthi-held areas of Yemen end.
The claims could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities.
The claims come amid intensifying fighting between the Houthis and government forces supported by the Saudi-led coalition, along with Saudi airstrikes across Yemen and repeated Houthi missile and drone attacks on targets inside Saudi Arabia.
Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and much of the country's north, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government. ■
